Daily Devotional

Valentine’s Day. It is declared a “celebration of love,” set on February 14. It has roots in Roman and Christian history. The poets celebrated it with romance and the idea of mating birds. It is involved with one or more saints named Valentine. Today it might be giving chocolates and flowers, spending time with a lover, or going out to eat. Maybe sending love poems or cards. It is associated with red roses. I like Valentine’s Day!

But the world is a tragic, lonely place. With no hope. Always terminal. It is without love, so we grasp at it. We feel it in human love. We see it in sunrises, sunsets and beautiful meadows, maybe in special seascapes. We try to express it in music or stories. But none of it can satisfy. It cannot last. Give me Thee.

Life promises much, but delivers little. All life on earth is temporary, fleeting. We experience it in marriage. Mine is great!  In a different form with the birth of children. What a blessing! Yet it is all flawed, including that which comes from ourselves. Give me Thee.

Humans languish without love. We are needy and alone. We yearn for the promise of love, but it is always just out of reach. We sometimes have it, then it is gone. Love is often trampled in our Christian efforts, even by the best of these. Speaking with the tongues of angels. Speaking a prophetic word. Knowing great mysteries and having superior knowledge. Exercising faith like no other. Moving mountains, perhaps. Sacrificing and serving, giving and even dying for another. Give me Thee.

We are helpless to fix others. We can give love, and love helps. But it cannot finally satisfy. The world is lonely, dark and cold. But no matter how much we gather to ourselves people, or the brightness of the joy of light; we can make every room and every area warm, yet we can remain in it lonely, cold and dark. Give me Thee.

Valentine’s Day can remind us. Christian enthusiasm can energize us. The love in the world can meet us part way. But there is always a chasm we cannot cross. All the while the sand in the hourglass steadily flows down. We see the fullness of that glass is less than it was before. It is always less than it was before. Give me Thee.

We think, there must be a way to make the world into a place of love. We might even try, in a limited way. But hate and violence and apathy continue on anyway. Loss and pain and damage continue. It cannot be fixed, and we hear another ambulance. Give me Thee.

The promises of something like Valentine’s Day can be vast, if we let it grow in our imagination from deep, romantic love. How it can spread out and overtake all! But it is momentary. It is only fantasy in its fullness. A fantasy I like. Yet it is an unfaithful lover. Give me Thee.

However, there is alone “One thing.” David spoke of it. John wrote of it. It is God’s love. It is to be had. It is to be known. It does last. It was expressed in Christ. It is given in salvation. It is empowered in the Spirit. It is alive to a degree in the church. It has no limits. It lacks no arena. It exempts no man. It makes all else work. Give me Thee.

Let us first and always be immersed in the love of God. If the love level drops in your heart, run to God to get more. Keep your heart full before and above every other priority or purpose. Nothing of substance is ever accomplished without it. All else will fade with the light of the next day. But our Lord is eternal. He alone is hope. He is love. He is life. He is our future. He is. Give me Thee.

Read: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, Isaiah 55:1-13
Sing: The Love of God, by F. M. Lehman; Never Alone, by Anonymous

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.