(by pastor Jean)

February 14th is the big day that the world celebrates love! However, as Christians we get to celebrate it every day! If you are born again you are born of love because God is love (1 John 4:7,8), love is part of our recreated spirits. “God is love, whoever lives in love lives in God and God in Him” (1 John 4:16). As this love grows and develops in our lives it becomes the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22). It was love that led Jesus to heal the sick and perform all the miracles that He did. That same “love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit” (Rom 5:5; NKJV). Jesus told us in John 15:9 that we are to abide in His love. To abide means to stay, dwell or remain. Jesus wants us to remain in His love because He wants us to not only love Him but also share this love with others (John 13:34, Matt 27:40, James 2:8). God commanded us to love but love is a decision that we have to make. It's not always easy but the word helps us with this. 1 Corinthians 13 verses 4-8 gives us specifics on what love looks like. If we meditate on all the love passages in the Bible, God’s love will become a part of us and it will become easier to put it into practice. Faith cannot work without love so when we get out of love our faith is affected (Gal 5:6, Mark 11:25). If we remain in love as Jesus commanded it will be easier to stay in faith and therefore, we can be victorious, “So now abide faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor 13:13; MEV).