The two most expensive parts of the year are December and February, and it's pretty obvious why that is so: because both are gift giving seasons. December marks the holiday season full of giving and family celebrations and February stands as the time when people express their love as a special one-day occasion.
According to Business2Community, the global spending on gifts and celebrations on Valentines rises to about $18.2 Billion worldwide in one single day. What is it about love that make people want to exchange so much value for, sometimes even when it's really not the real thing? That's because love is much bigger than we think.
When God made man, His original intent and design was love. He set man and woman in an abundant garden because of His love. He asked them both to love God, love each other and love the law. When man fell, God extended love through grace when He sacrificed an animal to cover up Adam and Eve's sin.
This love month, I'd like to leave you with three simple truths that will radically change the way we perceive love for God and for others.
Love is a grace freely given
Galatians 5:22 tells us that "But the fruit of the Spirit is love..." We can love because it is God's grace that has given the ability to love with the unending and unfailing love of the Father. To believe that we can love simply by our own strength limits our ability to do so, and can often just result to pain and disappointment. But when we love in a way that the Spirit of God enables us to do so, we love unconditionally, unfailingly and unendingly.
Love is a commandment offered
We are to rely on God's grace to love because the call to love is greater than we could ever know. God's call for people's lives have always been and will always be connected to the call to love God more than anything, and then to love others in the process. As believers of Christ, our first call is to act in love and compassion- never in dissent, pride and pretension.
Love is the reason why we are alive
John 3:16 gives us the greatest truth that is "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." Without the unfailing love of God, we would no longer be alive. It is only through His love that we continue to live and experience the blessing of life to the full.
