Valentine’s Day is strangely ironic.  The sad, silent elephant in the room is the possibility that for the other 364 days, we have not been loving at all.  If we are buying flowers and securing sweets and purchasing other tokens of our affections this one day, what makes it different from all of the other days — when we supposedly have been loving?  Have we really been practicing the presence of God, or have we been playing a game in which we withhold ourselves from others — so as not to give too much?  Have we weighed our love on a proverbial scale to protect ourselves from the love-thieves — those we fear will use us and squander our love and never, ever return it?  If we have, it is only because we are unaware of the truth that there is no need to conserve this energy force that flows through us.  You see, as  Samahria Lyte Kaufman writes in Handbook of the Heart,  “The one who loves the most wins.” 

We look forward to a time when we all understand the words of the biblical witness we call John, who writes that “God is love.”  John says that “Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.”  (1 John 4:16 NIV)  This clear mandate is the only religion that we need.  For if we all guided ourselves by a religion of unconditional love, there would be no room for hatred or discord or wars or famine.  If we truly loved our neighbors as ourselves, there would be no room for condemnation or prejudice or mean-spiritedness about anything or anyone.  There would be no need for just one day to express our love for each other.

 A lot of people find themselves lonely on Valentine’s Day  simply because they do not understand that love “consists not in finding the right person, but in becoming the right person.”  (Eric Butterworth, Life is for Loving)  The question never is what have you done for me lately, but rather what can I do for you now?  How can I make you laugh?  How can I make you smile?  How can I ease your burden?  How can I lift your Spirit?  How can I heal your soul?  How can I lift you from the burden of your despair and walk with you to the healing pool of your redemption?  How can I remind you of the blessing that you are?

 Love never ever ends with us.  Yes, it is the image and likeness that we are made in.  But creation is forever creating itself as love expressed through every aspect of our being.  Love is the divine source in which we live and move and breathe.  Love is the energy of life that flows through us from all beginnings without end.  It is the prophetic vision of all that is and ever will be.  It is the infinite power that conquers any difficulty.  It is the joyous celebration of all days and all months and all years and all seconds.

God’s love for us, you see, is unlimited.  Philippians 3:6 (NIV) says  “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”  Job 23:14 (KJV) says God loves us so much that even when we are called to do what appears to be a formidable task, we should be aware that God “performeth the thing that is appointed for [us to do].”  When we need protection and are worried about the appearances of things, we can remember that “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31 NIV)  In the book of Isaiah (41:10 NIV), God says, “do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”  This is a love that never limits itself to one day out of the year.

 Oh, romance is fine, but when we find ourselves making it the idol of our salvation, then we need to understand that we have broken divine law, and the only way to repair the damage that we will sustain to our hearts is to seek the Kingdom of God first.  Then, beloved, all else will be added.  Seek not by asking, but by giving the best of you to life.  The more love you give, the more love you will receive.  As Jim Gaither, the Minister of the Unity Center of NYC, writes in The Essential Charles Fillmore, “Love is the drawing power of the mind.  It is the magnet of the universe, and about it may be clustered all the attributes of Being.”  Love “takes no account of the result.  By so doing, love sometimes casts its pearls before swine, but its power is so great that it transforms all that it touches.”

Be that transformation — today and every day.  Pray without asking.  Stand in the inexhaustible supply of all of God’s good, all of God’s greatness, and all of God’s power blessing others as you.  Wear your anointing.  Center in the heart of God.  See God’s endless abundance  365 days a year.  Love here and now with devotion.  But most importantly, when Valentine’s Day is over, love without ceasing.   

Namaste, 

Reverend Cecilia Loving                                 

Pastor, SPIRITMUV www.spiritmuv.com www.godisabrowngirltoo.com  (All of the materials in SPIRITMUV email messages are copyrighted by and may not be used without the written permission of Cecilia Loving.  Please click on the link below or go to  www.spiritmuv.wordpress.com for the Spiritmuv Bible in a Year Schedule.)