A Valentine’s Day Prayer to Cultivate a Tender Heart toward God
By Lynette Kittle
Bible Reading: “Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and He relents from sending calamity”--Joel 2:13
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In today’s culture, Valentine’s Day is focused on romantic love, aimed towards couples. It seems to be the #1 goal of many people in the world to find romantic love above all kinds of love, to the point it detours and distracts countless people from loving God.
However, when it comes to love, as Christians, isn’t our priority love relationship the one we have with God above all our other relationships? Although we honor and cherish the love relationship between husbands and wives, parents and children, and friends, love for God often takes a back seat to having the forefront of our attention.
If so, how do we cultivate a tender heart toward God this Valentine’s Day? What does it take to keep our tenderness for God ongoing in our lives?
4 Ways to Help Cultivate a Tender Heart towards God
Following are four ways to help cultivate a tender heart towards God.
1. Ask God to examine our hearts. Keeping a tender heart involves continually asking God to examine our hearts and reveal what He finds in us. Psalm 26:2 urges, “Test me, Lord, and try me; examine my heart and my mind.”
As well, 2 Corinthians 13:5 urges us to, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?”
Although it’s good for us to examine ourselves, God’s examination reveals things we may not recognize. Both are beneficial for us, but His inspection has a way of keeping our hearts softened and from hardening towards Him.
Proverbs 21:2 describes the difference between our observations and God’s observations. “A person may think their own ways are right, but the Lord weighs the heart.”
2. See repentance as necessary. Acts 3:19 urges, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.”
Sometimes Christians believe once they’re saved, they don’t ever need to seek repentance for their sins. But repentance is healthy for us, cultivating tenderness for God and bringing times of refreshing to us.
It helps to keep our hearts soft and tender toward God. 2 Corinthians 7:10 advises, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.”
If we find it difficult to repent, God suggests ways that help lead us to it. “'Even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘return to Me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning’” (Joel 2:12).
3. Stop sinning. Sin has a way of hardening our hearts and causing distance between us and God. Isaiah 59:2 describes its effects on our relationship with Him. “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.”
Sin in our life keeps God from hearing our prayers. Psalm 66:18 reminds us, “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.”
The Apostle Paul in Romans 6:1 challenges us, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?”
4. Love each other deeply. Loving one another helps to cultivate tenderness towards God. As 1 Peter 4:8 encourages, “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”
Loving others tenderizes our hearts because God has given us the ability to love. “We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
Loving others cultivates a tenderness towards God that brings unity with Him and with others. Colossians 3:14 urges, “And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”
Let’s Pray:
Dear Father,
Today and every day, we ask You to examine our hearts, leading us to seek repentance and stop sinning, so that we may love You and each other more fully.
Thank You for loving us first, tenderizing our hearts so that we may be able to love others and to love You.
Cultivate tenderness within our hearts and lead us to help others' hearts to be tender towards You, too.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Irina Vodneva
Lynette Kittle is married with four daughters. She enjoys writing about faith, marriage, parenting, relationships, and life. Her writing has been published by Focus on the Family, Decision, Today’s Christian Woman, kirkcameron.com, Ungrind.org, StartMarriageRight.com, and more. She has a M.A. in Communication from Regent University and serves as associate producer for Soul Check TV.
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Originally published Friday, 14 February 2025.
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