*Image from Amazon dot com
Of course this passage is perfect for Valentine’s Day (rather, what the world celebrates; for information on the real Saint Valentine, see this article. It’s not all hearts, chocolate and roses.) It’s especially appropriate for Lent, which begins today.
I just finished reading the beginning notes in Tsh Oxenrider’s Lent devotional, Bitter and Sweet: A Journey Into Easter. Although I was raised in the Lutheran tradition, Lent was merely the beginning of the month prior to Easter. I have 6 pages of notes to prove it! It has an extensive and deep discussion about fasting, and I wish I would have read this years ago. I particularly love this passage:
“God is not watching us with a scorecard; the practice (of fasting) isn’t about proving our worth or earning His love; it’s about remembering how dependent we are on the Living God while we live here in our temporary, fragile bodies. Imperfection is part of the deal.”
She also discusses giving alms and prayer, and some practical applications and tips for your Lenten practice. Why, though, am I mentioning all of this?
Because we need to remember: HE loved us first. We need to remember how He showed His love for us, and why we should love one another.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 1 John 4:7-11
Friends, if you get nothing else from my blog, I pray you would know the great love of God for you. Lent is a preparation time, the moving from the deep darkness of winter into the glory of Spring. The time where we acknowledge that we NEED a God who loves us, who wants us to know Him better, and to come out of spiritual darkness and into His glorious light.
May you have a wonderful, blessed time of preparation and enjoy this day with the God who loves you.
In His Name,
Barbara
Stampinopolous 