Check out the featured post and read more here: https://www.ibelieve.com/devotionals/ibelieve-truth-a-devotional-for-women/before-valentines-day-remember-who-loved-you-first.html
Before I was in my first relationship, I was desperate to be loved and love someone else. I knew my worth came from God and that He loved me, but I felt like something was missing. I wanted someone to call my own. To have and to hold. To get excited about all those silly and romantic things like Valentine’s Day. And I don’t think I’m alone.
From the aisles of candy hearts and chocolates to cards, texts, and romance, we try to define love from a worldly point of view. The reality is God’s love already defines our worth and the love we’re able to share, show, and have with others. Pre-Valentine’s Day can just stir up all those ugly feelings we try to shove down—comparison, loneliness, pressure—even for people in relationships.
Friends, as much as we long for romance, butterflies, and relationships, God’s love doesn’t fluctuate based on attention or availability. We may love Valentine’s Day and holidays like it, but these don’t create love; they’re reminders of the love that already exists.
God is love, but love is not God—especially the counterfeit versions of it here on the earth. The roses, Hallmark movies, and fancy dinners are nice, but they can’t equate or compare to love. 1 John 4:19 even reminds us that we’re only able to love others because God Himself first loved us. That love created us, gave His one and only Son, died for us, and will someday soon raise us to eternal life in Heaven with Him.
1 John 4:8 describes God’s love this way: “…whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (NIV). 1 John 4:16 follows: “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them” (NIV). The reason we have this love is that God Himself lives in those who choose to love Him and commit their lives to Him.