Dear Reader,

When I was in my early twenties, I found myself on the front porch of my parents' house, tears streaming down my face. My husband had left. I had a baby and no money. I was devastated.

My mom sat down beside me and said something that stuck in my heart:

"God is love. Your husband loved you as much as he could, but he didn't have much to give because he didn’t have much of God.”

Then she said, “But God is love itself. And He has everything to give you."

In that moment, God held me. He dried my tears. He calmed my heart and let me know I was loved—more than I could fathom—by my Creator Father.

God Is Love: Your Valentine from Heaven

On this Valentine's Day, I want to remind you of that same truth.

The greatest love story ever told isn't written with chocolates or flowers, but with a cross and an empty tomb.

The apostle John declared it simply: "God is love" (1 John 4:8).

Not that God has love or shows love, but that He is love.

Love forms the very essence of His character. It is the foundation of everything He does.

And Paul painted love's portrait in 1 Corinthians 13: Love is patient, kind, never failing.

This isn't romantic sentiment or a fleeting emotional feeling.

This is the unstoppable force that sent Jesus to trade His life for yours, to take your sins and offer you eternal life in exchange.

His love reaches higher than the heavens. It provides everything you need for life and godliness.

Yet how often do we live beneath the weight of disappointment, fear, and the lies we've believed?

We carry burdens God never asked us to bear, struggle with needs we've never brought before Him.

Where Love Gets Real

Jesus gave us two commands that summarize everything:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And love your neighbor as yourself.

Your neighbor isn't just the stranger who needs help.

It's your spouse who forgets what matters to you. Your children who test every boundary. Your sibling who knows exactly which buttons to push. Your teenager who seems determined to reject everything you've taught. The husband who doesn't see your exhaustion. The wife who doesn't understand your pressure.

Sometimes we find it easier to love the people at church than the people at our own dinner table.

Our families know our stuff—the messy, broken, unedited version of us. They've seen us at our worst, heard our sharpest words, witnessed our deepest failures.

But here's where Jesus meets us in the trenches of real life.

Drawing from the Source

He gave us tools for dealing with the hardest people in our lives.

First and foremost, He gave us His love, which we are focusing on today.

As we learn to tap into more of His love—to receive it more deeply, more fully, because there is always more—we discover we can give what we've received.

The well of God’s love only grows when we draw from it. God’s love is an infinite Source.

When I face a difficult situation or a challenging person, I've learned to ask Jesus one simple question: "How do You see this?"

The answer grants me the mind of Christ on the matter. It brings empowering grace for what feels impossible.

Our fleshly thinking clouds our view, but His perspective clears the fog.

Remember This

You are a beloved child of the Most High God. His blood covers everything when you ask.

You stand before Him as a new creation in Christ Jesus, created for more than you can possibly imagine.

The enemy wants to cloud your view with lies, disappointments, fears, and hurts.

But here's the truth: Anything that comes against you that is not rooted in love is not from God.

Fear, disappointment, shame—these are not from God. They are weapons meant to blind you to who you really are and whose you really are.

So today, let me pray this over you.

My Prayer for You

I pray you feel the love of Christ surround you, that it comforts you and provides everything you need.

His love covers a multitude of sins—yours, mine, and those committed against us.

I pray His love heals places inside we don't even know are hurting.

Right now, I pray His love flows like living water through your soul, refreshing, encouraging, strengthening you with all power in your inner being.

I ask Jesus to heal the trauma and pain. (His love is big enough, friends!)

I ask Jesus to wash your disappointments, fears, and hurts into His sea of forgetfulness, to cleanse and restore and make whole all things.

You are loved. And you are valued by your Heavenly Father!

This Week's Challenge

1. Ask Jesus one question about your most difficult relationship: "How do You see this person?"

Write down what comes to mind. You might be surprised by the compassion, the backstory, or the pain He reveals.

He will give you some kind of insight.

One time I was feeling bad about saying some hard things to a woman. When I asked about it, God told me, “She is big enough to dish it out, she should be big enough to take it.” I had to laugh. His perspective transforms everything.

2. Ask for one tangible way to love that person this week.

Ask, “How can I love _____?”

It doesn’t need to be a grand gesture. It should be just one small, specific act that flows from His heart through yours.

Happy Valentine's Day from the One who loved you first and loves you best!

Blessings, Cynthia