Gods Heart of Grace
A Valentine’s Day Devotion

by Jane L. Fryar

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• How can we get to the heart of this issue?
• Let me give that idea my hearty endorsement!
• Please accept my heartfelt thanks for all your help!

 In sentences like these, the word picture lies so deeply buried we scarcely notice it. But at some time, a long time ago, English-speaking people began to identify the blood-pumping organ inside the human body with centrality and with profound emotion. In other languages and in other eras, other organs carried this connotation—kidneys or intestines, for instance.

But at Valentine’s Day, we delight afresh in the metaphor, speaking some of the most important words we will ever utter:

• I love you with all my heart!
• Sweetheart, you’re a true gift from Jesus!
• I thank God for you from the bottom of my heart!

 Buried in a quiet corner of the Old Testament, a valentine, of sorts, describes what’s on our Lord’s heart as he thinks about his people. Think about your name, written on God’s heart as you read his words to you and about you:

Sing, O Daughter of Zion;
shout aloud, O Israel!
Be glad and rejoice with all your heart,
O Daughter of Jerusalem!

The LORD has taken away your punishment,
he has turned back your enemy.
The LORD, the King of Israel, is with you;
never again will you fear any harm. . . .

The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing. (Zephaniah 3:14–17)

It’s not quirk or coincidence that throughout Scripture, God’s people carry the title, “bride of Christ” (e.g., Hosea 3; Revelation 19:6–10). While we may not often think of ourselves in these terms, our God loves us with passionate, untamable love. It’s a love beyond all reason, for what reasonable king would sacrifice his one and only son to save his adulterous, disloyal, treasonous bride?

Yet, our King has done exactly that! In doing so, he has “taken away [our] punishment”—executing his own Son on a bloody cross for our sins instead of executing us! He has “turned back [our] enemy,” prying death’s bony fingers off our throats and throwing Satan’s accusations out of court, refusing to hear any of them ever again.

He was indeed “mighty to save” through the cross and open tomb of his Son, and now, wonder of wonders, he takes “great delight” in us! His love quiets our fears. That love melts our worries. That love dissolves our suspicions about his motives into an ocean of peace.

And now, with no regard for his position or his dignity, he shouts his love for all the world—and all the realms of heaven and hell—to hear. He “rejoices over [us] with singing,” the prophet tells us. Singing! Over us! Over you! Over me! Imagine that!

God’s heart of mercy does not reject us, even when we wander from him. Even when we stalk away, defiant in our disobedience, he searches for us, calling us back to himself in desperate concern for our wellbeing. How humble and gentle he truly is toward us!

That kind of love evokes true repentance from our hearts. That kind of love creates love and loyalty in hearts that have never before embraced it. That kind of love makes it possible for us to obey our King’s command of grace—at Valentine’s Day and all through the year: Be glad and rejoice with all your heart!

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Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
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