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A Valentine From God!


Valentine’s Day – it’s supposed to be a day of communicating those matters of the heart as they relate to love and affection.  While Valentine’s Day has come and gone, perhaps there is room for one more Valentine…

In regard to those matters of the heart, if I were to paraphrase dictionary definitions, the heart is the center of the total personality, especially with reference to intuition, feeling or emotion.

So, how about this as a matter of the heart?   “The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart from generation to generation.”  (Psalm 33:11)

The plans of His heart…could it be that God’s plans are based on His emotions or feelings?

I must confess that I am more used to plans that come from the mind.  For that reason, Jeremiah 29:11 resonates more with me:  “For I know the plans I have for you”, declares the Lord, “plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.” 

Did you catch the “For I know”?  To know is to perceive or understand as fact or truth, to have fixed in the mind or memory.  Furthermore, the mind is the intellect or that which reasons, thinks, perceives and knows. The verse then from Jeremiah seems to point to God’s plans being based on knowledge. 

So, I can somewhat grasp the plans He has for me that are based on reason, perception, thinking and understanding.   Such plans seem pragmatic, factual and objective.  But from a human perspective, plans from the heart seem to be subjective, intuitive and yes, even emotional.  And for us, emotions and feelings are not always so very reliable.  Yet, from the verse from the Psalm, it seems that the plans from His heart, based on emotions and feelings, stand forever thus making them quite reliable.

However it all works out or is done, God has plans for you that come from both His heart and from His mind.  These plans are truly “forever yours”, that’s Valentine’s speak for I love you lots and lots!

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