It is the month of love and all things relationships. February is a time when there is always a focus on romantic relationships; in every grocery store you see the color red and balloon hearts, all in celebration of Love Day - February 14. While I am a big lover of “love” and all the romantic vibes, as I was preparing to write this devotional, something else caught my attention. That is “our love for God.” As we countdown to Valentine's Day, let’s also be focused on our first Love. Over the next 14 days, I hope that through this devotional you will be reminded of your love for Him and you will choose to keep the passion in your relationship with God burning. Enjoy :)

Deuteronomy 6:5 ESV 

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

Welcome to Day 1, I am so glad you are here. I was recently on a prayer call when someone mentioned something that struck me. As she opened up the prayer and encouraged us the participants to say prayers of thanksgiving, she said “Can you just tell God how much you love Him?” This is something I have heard before and also said myself but it was her next statement that particularly struck me, she said “We are so used to talking about how much God loves us and died for us but how often do we tell God we love Him?” 

It was like something shifted inside of me. Yes, we often thank God, and praise Him but do we tell Him daily that we love Him the way we tell a significant other daily? Are we intentional to daily pour and express our love for Him to Him? 

We see early on in the Bible as far back as the start of the Old Testament that God has called us not just to love others but to love Him first. What I particularly find interesting is the emphasis on the heart, soul, and might. God loves us and He desires fellowship, He desires a real relationship with us and that comes with us loving Him with everything we have. As you go about your month I want to challenge you to express your love to God. Be intentional this month about telling God you love Him daily like you would a significant other or a family member. Be intentional about your relationship with God.

Read out loud and meditate on the verse above and write down the following:

1. What is God saying to me?

2. What am I saying to God?

2nd Corinthians 13:14 ESV 

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Welcome to Day 2! Yesterday I talked about the fact that God wants us to love Him with our entire being. If you have read any of my past devotionals you will know that I love to reference the first few chapters in Genesis because it gives us a glimpse of God’s original intent for us as humans. We see that there was a fellowship God had with Adam and Eve, there was a language inferred of the regularity of God’s visit to them in the garden after they ate the fruit, and it seemed as though it was not odd for Him to be there. The message version of Genesis 3 says God was strolling through the garden, but what made that encounter different was that Adam and Eve had eaten the fruit. 

Where am I going with this? God wants to fellowship with us. The word fellowship simply means to be in association with or close communion with. God wants more than just you accepting Him as Lord and Savior; He wants fellowship. 

In a recent sermon, Pastor Wale referenced this Scripture of the “sweet fellowship of the Holy Spirit.” Though it is a verse we say often it hit me differently when he said it; he was talking about the importance of us wanting close communion with the Spirit of God. The beauty of what we have in the New Testament dispensation is that we don’t simply have visitations of the Spirit, but God’s Spirit lives inside of us. So there is no excuse for why we should not have the level of closeness that God desires for us to have with Him. 

As you go about this day, month, and year, I want this verse to always remain in your mind that there is a “sweet fellowship of the Holy Spirit.” There is a communion and regular engagement that you and I can have with God through His Spirit that helps us to love Him more and more as we get to know Him more and more. 

Read out loud and meditate on the verse above and write down the following:

1. What is God saying to me?

2. What am I saying to God?

2 Corinthians 5:14-15 NIV 

14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

Has someone ever done something for you that makes you so grateful that you want to do something for them or please them in return? Not because you feel obligated to, but because the best response to their display of love is to love them more. This is what I think of when I see this Scripture: “Christ’s love compels us.” The word compels there is like a driver; an irresistible force that because of the way He loves, our only response is to love Him back. 

The Bible also talks about giving in 2nd Corinthians 9:6-7 and how when we give it should not be done out of compulsion but it should be done cheerfully. This verse is often used concerning money but it has other applications. Our love for God should not be done out of fear or compulsion. The Bible also says “There is no fear in love” so love should be given cheerfully and freely. 

I want to encourage you this year to love God freely, not out of obligation but let His words in 2nd Corinthians 5 be true, that we love Him because His Love compels us and drives us naturally to respond to Him in love. 

Read out loud and meditate on the verse above and write down the following:

1. What is God saying to me?

2. What am I saying to God?

James 4:8 ESV 

“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you…….”

Anyone who knows me well knows I love a good romantic movie, some of my favorites I watch at 2-4 times a year. There is something about love that gives me that good feeling on the inside. One thing I have come to learn about love in any type of relationship is that it doesn’t grow if you are not intentional about it. Love can fade over time if you are not intentional about nurturing it and putting in quality time. 

If you love your parents or sibling(s) but never call them or spend quality time with them, because of the lack of intentionality your relationship will lack depth. It doesn’t change the fact that you love them or that they love you; but there is a level of intimacy that will be missing. Think about a significant other: if you never spent time with your spouse and you just rely on the fact that you love each other, over time it will feel like you are living with a roommate and not someone you love deeply.

One of the ways we show God our love for Him is by prioritizing quality time with Him. When you care deeply about a person, you make time to engage them, talk with them, and check on their wellbeing. The same should go for our relationship with God; let us make spending time with Him a priority. This could be through the reading of the Bible, writing to Him, or talking to Him throughout the day. Let us not just love with our words but let us show in our actions and choices that we love Him, value Him, and prioritize Him. Spend quality time with the lover of your soul; He is eagerly waiting.

Read out loud and meditate on the verse above and write down the following:

1. What is God saying to me?

2. What am I saying to God?

John 14:15 ESV

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

I ended yesterday highlighting that expressing God’s love is one thing but living it out is another. I always love it when I see the words of Jesus in the Bible; He lived a short life and was so particular about the words He spoke so when I see Jesus’s words I pay close attention. In this passage today we see the words of Jesus where He spoke on what it means to love Him. 

Think back on your relationships (a significant other or parent or friend). There are times we go out of our way to show others love in the way we think they need it and the person still says they don’t feel loved by us. Has that ever happened to you? If yes, you are not alone. Simply put, you are not loving them based on their love language; the way they want to be loved. 

When we see Jesus say “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments,” it is a way of Him saying one of the ways you express or profess your love for Me is to be obedient to Me. Sometimes showing God our love for Him is as simple as obedience. What is that area of your life that you know you need to be obedient to God in? Today I am inviting you to obey not because it makes sense to you but because the One who made you says to. In turn, you will be professing your love for Him by your ability to obey. 

Read out loud and meditate on the verse above and write down the following:

1. What is God saying to me?

2. What am I saying to God?

Luke 10:27 ESV 

And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

Over the next few days, we will continue to unpack how our love for God is professed beyond our words. Today we will be focusing on the passage we started with from Deturnomy 6:5. The passage here in Luke 10:27 is similar to that which was in the Old Testament. However, there is a bit of a twist added here in the New Testament, “love your neighbor as yourself.” 

One of the ways we show God we love Him is how we treat the people around us. Through His word, God is letting us know that one of the ways we express and profess our love to Him is by loving those around us. 

As we all strive and work towards pouring our love on God this year, I want to remind you that how you treat your fellow humans (despite our differences) matters to God. Remember in every interaction to show the love of Christ that has been poured to you and as you do that, know that it is in turn expressing to God your love for Him.

Read out loud and meditate on the verse above and write down the following:

1. What is God saying to me?

2. What am I saying to God?

1 John 4:7 ESV / 770 helpful votes 

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

Let me start with this: there is nothing you can do that will make God love you any more than He does. Let that be settled in your heart, God loves you! I think this is important to underscore because we should never feel anything we do for God makes Him love us more. The things we do should be because we love Him and not to gain His love, because we already have it. Romans 5:8 tells us “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” 

The verse for today ends with “Whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.” In our human relationships love is something that usually takes time; for some people. We find that the more we know of a person, the more we spend time with them, and the more we understand them, the easier it is to fall in love with them. The same goes for our relationship with God. 

This passage speaks of knowing God and the truth is, God is multifaceted. Each day there is a new level of discovery of His heart and character and just the person of who He is. So the more we spend time in His word and in prayer, we get to know Him more intimately which makes it possible for us to Love Him freely and completely. 

I encourage you this year to make the determination that you want to know new sides of God. Express your love for Him by knowing Him more. Spend quality time with your Father. 

Read out loud and meditate on the verse above and write down the following:

1. What is God saying to me?

2. What am I saying to God?

John 21:15-17 ESV 

15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.”16 He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”

Questions have a way of revealing the heart of a matter to us. This passage has always intrigued me because of how Jesus repeatedly asked the question “Do you love me?” As I mentioned in one of the earlier days of the devotional, the words of Jesus are words to pay close attention to because there is sometimes a lot implied that is not explicitly said. There was a reason Jesus was asking this question over and over again. It was like He was pointing to the fact that to Him this is what shows Him that we love Him: when we care for the lost as He does. After all, Jesus came for the lost. If we look at Luke 15, it is filled with three Parables about lost things. The Great Commission in Matthew 28:16-20 also underlines this point of what Jesus was saying to Peter in the verses above. This is how we show we love Him.   

Through this devotional the emphasis has been on us loving God and showing the love to Him that He has poured out to us. In this passage, we see Jesus say to Peter to feed His lambs, tend to His sheep, and feed His Sheep. To Jesus, He is essentially saying “This is how you show you love me” when you do these things. I encourage you to do a study on this verse and meditate on it. 

What does it mean to feed His lambs, tend to His sheep, and feed His Sheep? What is the distinction between the lamb and the sheep, what is the distinction between feeding them and tending to them? I want you to sit with this Scripture and compare Scripture with Scripture, find commentary, and break this down to gain an understanding of what Jesus means here. It is very important to do this because Jesus is saying this is how we show we love Him; prayerfully seek God for understanding on these verses and He will reveal more to you as you do so. 

Read out loud and meditate on the verse above and write down the following:

1. What is God saying to me?

2. What am I saying to God?

1 Peter 4:8 ESV / 601 helpful votes 

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly since love covers a multitude of sins.

It is Day 9, I hope you have been staying engaged on this devotional. Beyond reading the words I have shared, I truly hope you are meditating on the Scriptures and praying through them. I love how the Bible allows us to compare Scripture with Scripture and how we get to see the same thing in different ways. Here the message of loving others is still resounding but a key factor here which will be our focus today is the ability that love has to cover sins. 

When meditating on this Scripture I was reminded that it is the love Christ has for us that caused Him to die for us as stated in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.”  In other words, God’s love for us is part of what causes Him to forgive our sins. In turn, this also means that as we love others (which is a way to show we love God) we also tap into our heavenly ability to forgive people. 

Have you ever had an acquaintance do something to you that deeply hurt you to the point of not wanting to forgive or not wanting to let it go? Have you ever had a close friend you love deeply do the same thing and find you're not struggling as much to forgive your friend? This is why the Bible encourages us to love one another earnestly; God knows that offense will come and forgiving will not be a hard ask when there is love at the foundation. 

As you go through this year, remember that loving others is not only a reflection of our love for God but also serves as a covering and gift from God to make it easy to embrace forgiveness (something that would naturally not have been hard to do). Tap into that grace today, forgiving others is one of the ways we express our love to Him.

Read out loud and meditate on the verse above and write down the following:

1. What is God saying to me?

2. What am I saying to God?

Jeremiah 31:3 ESV 

The Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.

The Bible is such a poetic book. I was once in a group where I was asked if the Bible is a book of laws or a love letter. Some people saw it as a book of laws and others saw it as a love letter and some people said it is fifty-fifty. What I have come to learn in my adult life is that even the parts of the Old Testament we see and interpret as laws and gloom are still the love of God and His faithfulness to His people. 

The Bible uses poetic words a lot to describe God’s love for us. If a significant other wrote these words to you “I love you with an everlasting love,” it would surely make your heart melt. These are the words of God to us; God was never shy about professing His love for us and also displaying it. My encouragement to you today is to boast in the love of God. Write Him a love letter and profess your love in flowery language, get poetic with it, and love on your God as an act of intimacy. 

Read out loud and meditate on the verse above and write down the following:

1. What is God saying to me?

2. What am I saying to God?

1 John 4:20 ESV 

If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

The choice to love God is something that comes with a responsibility. To love God is a calling to live higher, act differently, think differently, and engage differently. This passage today further challenges our idea of what it means to say we “love God.” In one of the previous days, there was a similar Scripture that spoke of loving others as a way we show we love God. This time it emphasizes the word “Hate.” God is saying to us that hate is not something that we as Christians should entertain because if we hate another person then in turn we are saying we don’t love Him. This is not a conditional statement, it is one of fact. We can not hate someone else and love God. 

Phewwww this can be a hard pill to swallow sometimes, especially when people have wronged you and you have every right to hate them by the world's standards. However God is calling us higher; He is reminding us that hatred and love can not coexist, what does light have to do with darkness? To love is also to sacrifice, this is what Christ modeled. 

So let us submit today to God our past hurts and rid ourselves, by the power of God, of the hatred we feel towards others so we can fully love God. Then our love for God will not only be in words but also action.

Read out loud and meditate on the verse above and write down the following:

1. What is God saying to me?

2. What am I saying to God?

1 Corinthians 16:14 ESV 

Let all that you do be done in love.

One of the great blessings of my life has been the opportunity to serve in a local church. It is something that has been such a blessing to me in different ways and allowed me to grow in more ways than I could have imagined, most of all in loving the people I  serve with. Our love for God should be expressed in how we serve Him. The Bible says whatever we do we should do it unto the Lord, not man. The way we serve in various areas of our lives is also a way we express our love to Him.

Our service to God is not limited to ministry; the way you do the work at your job should be as unto God, not man. Colossians 2:23 says “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” This means at your job, and anywhere you find yourself whether in ministry, the corporate world, or as an entrepreneur, work well as it is unto God.

If you are not serving at a local church, I encourage you to take the step to do so and plug in to serve. Remember you are not serving God to get something from Him or move His hand. You are to serve because you see it as an expression of your love. If you are already serving, I encourage you to assess the way you serve. Are you serving from a place where love is your driving force or out of compulsion? Ask God for grace, and He will help you to let all that you do be done in love. 

Read out loud and meditate on the verse above and write down the following:

1. What is God saying to me?

2. What am I saying to God?

Psalm 63:3 ESV / 448 helpful votes 

Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.

I remember listening to a message that talked about the way kings are praised in parts of the world. I am reminded of growing up and going to my hometown and seeing how much pomp and circumstance is placed on praising the king. When I watch some movies that have royalty there is a way that people praise and honor kings and queens that is so peculiar. Those praises bring joy to the king and most times are repetitive and exalting them to their rightful place. 

Let’s make it a habit this year to shower God, the King of kings, with praises. It is an expression of our love for Him. Make plans to do this regularly daily. It can be structured or fluid; just have intentional moments when you verbally express your praise with your lips. Praise Him for who He is, for what He has done, for what He is yet to do; just praise Him. You can even break out in a dance, put on one of your favorite praise songs, and dance before your Maker. David danced as his expression of love (disregarding his status and kingship) before God. This month of love, show love to the lover of your soul and bring joy to the heart of your Father. Praise Him with your lips. 

Read out loud and meditate on the verse above and write down the following:

1. What is God saying to me?

2. What am I saying to God?

1st John 4:7-19 ESV

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. Fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us.

Happy Valentine's season. I knew there was no better Scripture than this for us to close out the “First Love” devotional. God is love! His love for you is patient, His love for you is Kind, His love for you is enduring, His love for you has no end. The message here, He loved us first, chose us, and called us. All of these things He did first because of His love. This love has now been poured out on us and that love enables us, compels us, and drives us to not only love others but also Him. 

Our response to this consistent display of His love is to love Him back. Not only with our words but through our actions. Love Him not because of what we think we can get from Him but love Him for who He is. As we go through today, there may be a heightened sense of expressing love through words, gifts, dinner dates, and heart shapes. Let us take a moment to love on and acknowledge the greatest Lover and love story of them all. 

The wonderful thing about our relationship with God is that it is not only celebrated on a single day like Valentine's Day, Easter, or even Christmas. It is a living, breathing, ongoing relationship. Love on God all the days of your life; my prayer for you is that as you know Him more, you will love Him more. You will be intentional about expressing your love to Him in words and action, and you will rest in His unconditional love for you. 

Read out loud and meditate on the verse above and write down the following:

1. What is God saying to me?

2. What am I saying to God?