“A Knee-print Valentine”

“A Knee-print Valentine”

By Susanne Scheppmann

Key verse: 

Mark 12:30, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' ” (NIV)  

Devotion:

Lacy white paper glued to bright red paper constructed to enchant others.  Cutout hearts invite—Be Mine Valentine! Pastel candies with cute phrases provide a sweet conversation between two people.  February is the month noted for Love.

However, after searching for just the right valentine card this year, it dawned on me that I can spend more time looking for an endearing phrase for my husband, than I do telling God how much I love Him.  Personally, I have never seen a “valentine” card to God.  Have you?

This February I will certainly bestow my love on the special people God has placed in my life, but I am also determined to love God “with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength.”  Why?  Because the Apostle John writes this truth, “We love because he first loved us.” (I John 4:19, NIV)  The only reason, I can even begin to love a Holy Almighty God, is because he loved us by sending His son to die on a tortuous wooden cross for me.

"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.”

(John 3:16 NIV)

He loved me first.  He loved you first. Do you have a love relationship with Jesus Christ?   Perhaps, you feel unloved during the month of Love, but you don’t need to.  There are four simple steps to beginning an eternal love relationship with Him.

·      Believe He is the Son of the Living God

·      Believe He died for your sins and was resurrected to eternal life.

·      Ask for forgiveness of yours sins.

·      Accept Him as Lord of you life.

Now whether you have just begun a love relationship with Jesus or if you have journeyed with him for years, how about presenting Him with an outward display of your love? 

My valentine message to Christ will be a special time on my knees. I pray that my creaking knees will be a sound of praise to His ears.  The carpet indented with knee-print kisses and elbow-mark hugs on the sofa will be the loving signature of my devotion to Him. (And I will not make my usual list of needy requests.)  This knee-print valentine will be just whispers of love, to a God who deserves to be worshipped in complete loving devotion.  

Prayer: 

Lord Jesus, I thank you for loving me enough to die on the Cross.  Lord, I want you to know that I love you.  I want to learn to love you more each day.  Teach me how to love you with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. 

Application steps:  

Do you remember making valentines in school?  Well, today take fifteen minutes and make a Valentine’s Day card for God.  It doesn’t have to be beautiful, but it should be heartfelt.  Dig out your glue gun, a red crayon, a few pieces of paper, and make a love note to God. Then hang it on your refrigerator as a reminder this week to tell God that you love Him. 

Refection points:       

Do you know that God wants to be the love of your life?

How can you show God you love Him?

With whom can you share the story of God’s love? 

Power verses:  

Psalm 42:8, “By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me-- a prayer to the God of my life.” (NIV) 

Psalm 66:19-20, “But God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer. Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!” (NIV)

Jeremiah 33:3, “ 'Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.' ” (NIV)  

Zechariah 13:9, “…They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, 'They are my people,' and they will say, 'The Lord is our God.’ ” (NIV)  

© 2005 by Susanne Scheppmann. All rights reserved.