If you ask a hundred people what their definition of love is, you’ll end up with at least ninety different answers. I’d also wager if you were to ask those same people what they must do or have to receive or feel love, the responses would once again range the gamut. Perhaps the following would be typical answers:

· Have a boyfriend

· Get married

· Flowers

· Sex

· Chocolate

· Massages

· Children

In the proper context, all of these are healthy and wonderful things, yet none of them can ever truly give us love.

Do you remember the story of Rachel and Leah? “Rachel was lovely in form, and beautiful” (Genesis 29:17), while her sister is only described as having weak eyes. Can’t you feel the sting of jealousy Leah must have felt, especially once her father deceitfully gave her to be Jacob’s wife even though Jacob had worked seven years in order to marry Rachel? The envy and strife between the sisters grew with each waking moment, with Leah being fully cognizant of the fact that her husband loved her sister rather than her. Look at her sorrowful words recorded in Genesis 29:32:

Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, for she said, ‘It is because the LORD has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now.”

Do you hear her desperation and her sheer desire to be loved? Of course no one could blame her, yet not even the birth of a son could grant her what she so desperately wanted (Genesis 29:34). It wasn’t until the birth of her fourth child that she began to understand the source of love.

She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, ‘This time I will praise the LORD.’  So she named him Judah (Judah sounds like and may be derived from the Hebrew for praise). Then she stopped having children.” Genesis 29:35

Did you catch that? Leah turned her attention from trying to gain the love of her husband to praising the One who created love. What’s even more, she began praising the One who loved her more than any husband, father, or son ever could.

If I only had a split-second to decide, I would jump in front of an oncoming car to save either of my children, even if it would be an imminent death. However, I can’t assure you I’d be so quick to the task if I had a lot of time to decide if I would willingly give my life for them. And yet we’’re told that “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8 Let that soak in for a few minutes. You are loved by the Almighty.

At the risk of sounding repetitive, I must share something that greatly troubles me. I know too many women who are forfeiting their bodies and souls in a desperate attempt to feel loved. They are allowing near-strangers to desecrate the holy temple God has created within them. I don’t say this in judgment, for like Leah I understand your desperation, but can I tell you something? You’re looking in the wrong place. A man will never fill the void you so violently want to satisfy. Remember, “the fruit of the Holy Spirit is love” (Galatians 5:22). Don’t settle for fake fruit. Relish in the most exquisite love ever known to mankind.

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 3:17