written by Greg Laurie~ Today is Valentine’s Day. This is a day when billions of dollars are spent to show your love. This year, $17 billion will be spent on Valentine’s Day. Studies show that men spend twice as much on women as women spend on men. It’s a big day for chocolates and flowers. It’s also a big day for pets! Americans will spend $367 million on their dogs! Theoretically, this is all about showing love for “special someone.” Remember in school when you had to give a valentine to everyone? I remember an episode of The Simpsons where Lisa Simpson had to do that. One of her valentine’s cards went to a nerdy little boy named Ralph Wiggum. It said on the cover of the card, “I choo-choo-choose you” (with a picture of a train, of course). Ralph took it literally and pursued Lisa. Have you ever pursued someone that did not reciprocate? We all have our perception of love—much of it colored by popular culture, which is not a good thing. We envision meeting the love of our life on a beach at dusk as we run in slow motion. We want it to be like it is in those romantic comedies we see in the theaters. And indeed, everyone is looking for love in life. I read about an extensive survey conducted in the US by a leading polling agency. Questionnaires were distributed to people of various ages and occupations. The key question was, “What are you looking for most in life?” When the results were compiled, the analysts were surprised. Most of them had expected answers that would suggest materialistic goals, but at the top of the list was love. I know it sounds cliché, but people want to love and be loved. But how can we know real love when we find it? We watch Hollywood celebrities hook up and break up in a nanosecond. Or sometimes we confuse lust with love. What we need is a real love that will stand the test of time. Every love will be challenged and tested, for there is a deeper love that one must look for in life—not the fickle love of this culture. Regardless of how you fare today for Valentine’s Day, I want you to know this: God loves you. And as a result we should love Him. Of course, it is His love that prompted ours. “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19 NKJV). Yes, it is true: God “choo-choo-chooses you!” Not because He had to, like Lisa, but because He wanted to! “Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure” (Ephesians 1:4–5 NLT). Know you are loved today.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Feb 2014 00:21:24 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015