February Advice: Equip Yourself to be Swept Up in a Relentless Love

February is all about love. A chance for those in romantic relationships to celebrate one another, and while the world has tried to make it about platonic relationships (i.e. Galentines), it often forgets to reference God, the one who is love. 

Have you ever realized how close the month of love is to the holidays and the start of the new year? It’s like we’re riding this long wave of community, gifts, and most of all, love in motion. After all, what’s Christmas without love and what’s February without the famous four-letter word? 

This is a very good time to not just celebrate the platonic and romantic relationships in our lives. But, it’s also a good time to celebrate the love of God for us. My business and brand were founded on the Agape Love of God, hence my insta @agapexolay. The Love of God is peculiar, and scriptures point out that he’d leave the 99 for 1 (Luke 15:4). It also tells us he loves his creation so deeply that he sent his one and only son to be a living sacrifice for our sins (remember the son whose birth we just celebrated in December). And let’s not forget that the Bible tells us that God is love. If we’re looking to understand love and what it means to be loved, we have to first reference God. 

Because it's in His love for you and me that we really gain an understanding of what love should look and feel like. Even in a self-love mindset, you need to reference God's love and the attributes scripture uses to describe it. This February my advice to you in order for you to truly experience and embrace love this season is to reflect on Gods perspective on love and His love for us.

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. 1 John 4:7-12

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8

I love and appreciate God’s love because it sees me, knows me, hears me, and in the midst of it, He does not judge me. He doesn’t condemn, but He does convict, allowing me to register in my own time right from wrong. He doesn’t beat me down, nor make me feel unworthy; instead, He builds me up by revealing me to me, and Him in me. He shows me all that’s in me that makes me worthy despite the world’s opinions. And this is true for you too.

Receiving and experiencing God's love open us all to receiving love from the world with much more ease. God’s love gave me clarity when choosing my husband, teaching me how to receive the language he was speaking to me even though it felt foreign. Among friends and family, and even strangers sent as help or for me to help, His love positioned me to not just be a receiver but a giver of love.

Don’t allow this month to pass by without spending time getting caught up in His love. Use this period as a reference for how you can reflect on His love throughout the year. Sometimes we need a reminder of how deeply God loves us to keep us grounded and rooted. Make love month about catching up to His love.

Enjoy this beautiful reflection on God's love by the one and only Mrs CeCe Winans "Goodness of God"