Valentine’s Day has come and gone and maybe you’re just not feeling the love.

Let me remind you there is One who loves you, no matter what.

He loved you long before you were a mere twinkle in your father’s eye. He loved you before you even knew who He was. He proved He loved you while He bore your shame so you wouldn’t have to experience that shame.

There is no shame in the Lord’s kingdom. That’s because you are accepted by Him, considered perfect and blameless in His sight, thanks to the blood of Jesus Christ. With Christ’s willingness to pay your debt, you’ve been made right with God.

It doesn’t matter what your performance is because His performance trumps yours. His reward is yours. His resurrection is yours. His blessings are yours. You have God’s favor and more importantly His love.

Do you recall in Genesis 1:27 how God said man (meaning all humans) was made in His image? We were created to reflect Him. We are complete in Him.

You don’t have to seek someone else’s love, approval or acceptance. No matter whether you’re married or single, you are defined by Him, not your relationship status. Your identity is in Him.

It doesn’t matter if you are an extreme screwup who has failed Him, those you care about, those you work with and everyone else in your life. The Lord has made a way for you through His Son. You and I were washed in the blood of the righteous One, redeemed and forgiven.

It doesn’t matter if you have the crappiest job in the world, where no one respects you or rewards you for all the hard work you’ve done. You should be doing it for the Lord, who sees your effort and blesses those who obey Him (Colossians 3:23-24).

It doesn’t matter if you have been to hell and back, so to speak, because circumstances out of your control wrung you through the ringer physically, mentally or emotionally. God is still there for you (Deuteronomy 7:9). In fact, He never moves out of the reach of your voice. Nothing can separate you from His love (Romans 8:37-39).

I hear the phrase “It’s complicated” a lot in reference to relationships. One thing I know for sure about God — a relationship with Him is not complicated.

He has given 100 percent of Himself for you. He won’t walk away, He won’t break down, He won’t berate you. He made a commitment to you that fateful day on the cross nearly 2,000 years ago.

Yes, you.

Mike Payne and Ronnie Hinson wrote a great song in the 1980s, “When He Was On The Cross (I Was On His Mind),” that beautifully describes how committed He is to us. Here is a portion of the tune:

“There’s no one great among us/We’re nothing on our own/We make mistakes we often slip/Just common flesh and bones/I know I’ll prove just what I say/I’m of a special kind/When He was on the cross/I was on His mind.”

“I (the Lord) am He who blots out your transgressions, for My own sake, and remembers your sins no more.” — Isaiah 43:25

The blotting out described here can be correlated to the pitch that coated the inside of Noah’s ark. Pitch can be translated as atonement, covering Noah’s family and saving them from the flood. Likewise, Jesus’ blood is the pitch, the reconciliation allowing us to be in God’s presence.

Remember John 3:16? “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son …”

How about 1 John 4:10? “This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

Or Romans 5:8-10? “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we’re still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through Him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled. shall we be saved through His life!”

Oh, dear friend! God loves you and you are on His mind.

“He knew me, yet He loved me/He whose glory makes the heavens shine/Unworthy of such mercy/When He was on the cross/I was on His mind.”



Follow Ruth Ann Replogle on Facebook at http://www.face book.com/pages/Just-Hold-On/419800328081972 or email her at justholdonrr@gmail.com.