Do you struggle to feel loved?

Do you ever feel unworthy?

Do you ever wrestle with thoughts of being inadequate?

Whenever I have thoughts like this, I start putting unreasonable expectations on my husband, my daughter, my friends. I look to others to fill those voids in me.

But they can’t. And they never will.

Only God can fulfill that in me because He is the One who created me.

So I search my heart. And when I do, it always comes back to this:

I am not spending quality time with my Lord.

Remember when you were young and in love? Your prince charming drove the car and you sat right by his side, holding his hand.

Fast forward time.

You’re now married to your prince charming. You all are once again in the car driving down the road. You find yourself no longer right by his side. Instead, you are in the seat over by the window on the other side of the car. You look over at him and ask, “What happened to us? How did we get here?

He looks back at you and replies, “I never moved–you did.”

That’s how it is with the Lord.

I like to picture it like a shepherd’s relationship with his flock of sheep.

Who gets to experience the most benefits from the shepherd? The sheep who are closest to Him.

It’s not that the shepherd doesn’t love all of his sheep. He certainly does. But the ones who spend that time with him, who are right by his side–those are the ones who get to experience him and his love on the deepest levels.  The other sheep are too busy over by the fence looking out at what they think are greener pastures on the other side.

They are the ones who moved. Not Him.

So on this Valentine’s Day, there is Someone who wants to be your Valentine. He waits for you. He wants your heart and He wants to give you His.

In fact, He already did.

He loved you so much that He died for you.

Talk about being loved and valuable. You are!

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  John 3:16

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

And check this out. He’s the One Guy you can be totally desperate for. He prefers that we be desperate for Him.

We will never find our worth, until we find it in Him.

We will never find our value, until we find it in Him.

We will never feel fully loved, until we find it in Him.

So stop looking for love in all the wrong places and faces. Go find Him. And when you do, don’t move. Stay by His side.

Happy Valentine’s Day!