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This Valentine’s Day I want to remind you that everyone should have a special someone in their life. That special someone may be your husband or your wife, but it doesn’t have to be. It may be your boyfriend or girlfriend, or it could be one of their friends. It could even be your parents, your kids, or a family member.

When I say a special someone, I am referring to someone that you know that needs the love of Jesus in their lives. Someone that has not made that confession of faith and is still walking in spiritual darkness. And let’s be honest, we all know someone like that. Let’s be even more honest we were someone like that. Scripture tells us, “For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord” (Ephesians 5:8). And because I was called out of the darkness, I now have a responsibility to let that light shine through me and upon Jesus so others can see his marvelous works. Once again scripture says, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people called for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9-10). We were called out of darkness and into the light so we could tell others, proclaim the greatness of God.

I am sharing this with you because I was someone’s special someone at one time. It was a time that I was walking in darkness because I did not know the light. I claimed I knew Jesus, but I was still living a life apart from him, I thought I was in the light, but I was living in the shadows. A very dear friend of mine was insistent on telling me that he was praying for me and always invited me to church. Like most, I refused the invitation over and over again. It was when my life retreated from living in the shadows and moved into complete darkness, when I felt hopeless and alone, he reminded me that there was hope and that the light could be found again, not from anything in the world but only through this relationship with Jesus Christ. I would love to say that I went to church right away, but once again, like most, I did not.

But here is the ultimate question; did he stop praying for me or inviting me? NO! Why? Because I was someone special to him. Not a project, or someone that he thought needed fixed, but just a friend he loved in need of something, and he knew the answer. So, he continued to pray, and he continued to ask, and eventually I agreed and went with him to church. Not because I knew it was what I needed at the time, but mainly to shut him up. But as soon as I walked into those doors there was this feeling of peace that washed over me, and I knew that there was something special about God that I had been missing out on. I know he would never take any credit for getting me to walk through those doors, but Shawn, God used you in a mighty way all those years ago. So, thank you!

I say all of this to remind each of us that we should all have at least one special someone in our life. That one person that we know is in need; not in need of anything that we can give them but in need of the hope that is only found in Jesus Christ. We should all have at least that one special someone that we look upon, not as a project or someone that needs fixed, but just as someone in need of love and compassion. Not all are called to be pastors, or teachers, or evangelist, or prophets, or apostles, but we are all called to love one another. So, I want to encourage each of you. Maybe you have been praying for someone for years and it seems to be going nowhere; don’t stop praying because you never know when that breakthrough may happen. And if you do not have a special someone in your life, pray that God sends someone your way and open your heart to receive them.

1 John 4:9-11 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.  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.  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.