February is the month of love. Sweethearts like to celebrate Valentine’s Day, give gifts, and eat candy. It’s a special thing to be in love. It’s a blessing to be loved. Yet the love that the world celebrates, as necessary as it is, is not all there is.

Most love in this world is natural love. By that, I mean that it’s based on human instincts, or on plain selfishness. Lots of marriages work until someone feels their needs aren’t being met. Friendships break up over misunderstandings. Strangers on the road tolerate you until you cut them off!

Natural love, though necessary, is often weak and fickle. The Bible presents something better. The love of God is supernatural. The Bible says it never fails.

The love of God is patient. It doesn’t drop you the moment you mess up.  It’s not rude, the way some family members treat each other, although they’re kind to strangers! It’s not puffed up or self-serving. It is the kind of love that makes sacrifices for even those who don’t appreciate it.

It’s the kind of love that goes after the unlovely. It sees the good and the possibilities in those the world has given up on. It forgives, even when the offender was clearly in the wrong. It overcomes evil with good.

God’s supernatural love turns sinners into saints, hells into heavens, and cowards into heroes. It satisfies the deepest levels of the human heart. And it is freely offered to us. God’s supernatural love compelled Him to reach out to us, even though we never deserved it!

For one will scarcely die for a righteous person--though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom. 5:7-8 ESV)

Freely offered, yet so carelessly rejected by a world steeped in darkness! Yet anyone who receives God’s love can become a channel of change in the darkness. His perfect love casts out all fear. His love, when experienced, moves His people to love others.

You can’t give what you don’t have, but when you “taste and see that the Lord is good,” (Psalm 34:8) you find yourself ready to take on the world. You find the supernatural power to love, even those who are giving you a hard time. The goal of the church should be to excel in this love. The goal of the unbeliever should be to discover it!

Have you taken God’s love for granted? February is a great month to pursue the Great God who is pursuing you. I think I hear Him calling for you:

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
(Rev. 3:20)

It’s an incredible wonder that God Himself makes the initial move. Why do so many people keep Him out?