GOD IS LOVE
GOD IS LOVE
Brick and mortar and on line stores are awash with sales of just about anything, in celebration of the phenomenon that is valentine’s day. There are all kinds of promos and offers loading; buy two get one free; buy one get one free or buy one get one half price. Everything on offer, if purchased, must be paid for. Nothing is entirely free. There is a cost in monetary terms. If however one cannot afford something or is unable to pay for something, they will have to go without it, forget about it or borrow to pay for it. But no seller is giving anything away for free.
It is most likely that prices of goods and services have gone higher than they were last year. By this time last year, the corona virus pandemic had not yet spread all over the world. For instance, the index case in Nigeria came in on the 29th day of February, 2020. But now with a lot of travel restrictions and lock downs, goods and services are not moving as freely as before. So one might need to pay a premium to get things done promptly or done at all. And in the U.S alone there is an estimated $22 billion to be spent this year on this phenomenon called Valentine’s Day! The statistics are mind blowing!
The word love will be thrown around freely and loosely that day and a lot of people will get into trouble or end up with what they never bargained for. Still February 14th, is the day the Lord has made and we must rejoice and be glad in it.
My message today is to tell us about a love greater than any other love professed on Valentine’s day. The LOVE OF GOD. “God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love – not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” 1 John 4:9-10 NLT Real love is sacrificial in nature. Ask parents who know how many sacrifices they constantly make for their children. And this is done out of love. If they did not care for their children then they would care less what happened to them. They would not even bother themselves with the children. But that is hardly ever the case. When you love, you cannot but make sacrifices for whom you love.
Some of the lovers preparing for a special day on Sunday 14th February, this year, will not even be together in a couple of months, talk less of next year. But I come to tell you about a love that lasts forever, a love that does not keep records of any wrong done, a love that does not judge, a love that does not condemn. A love that gave everything for us.
“We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion how can God’s love be in that person?” 1 John 3:16-17 NLT
No matter how much money will be spent on “Love” this valentine’s day, in all the world combined, it will never match the price that was paid for you and I when Christ died for us on the cross. Just like goods purchased must be paid for, we are the purchase of God. And He paid for us. He bought and redeemed us with the very precious blood of Jesus.
“For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. It was the precious blood of Christ , the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.” 1 Peter 1:18-19 NLT
Our Heavenly Father has shown us that we are worth much more than the blood of animals, no matter how spotless they were.
He gave His only Son as a sacrifice for our sins.
What Amazing Love!
GOD IS LOVE; LET US NEVER FORGET THAT!
OLUYINKA EGO-MARTINS ©