Everyone wants to feel loved and be loved. In fact, God placed this longing inside the heart of every man and woman. In each of us, there is a God-shaped hole that can only be filled to satisfaction by God alone. Yes, love is often found in marriage, experienced when we have children and expressed by friends and the body of Christ.
However, there is no relationship that will fulfill the true longing of our souls like a relationship with God.
Yet, we all experience times when we don’t feel loved, even Scripture references women who felt this way:
- Hagar, used and abused, was sent into the wilderness to die only to discover the God who sees (Genesis 16:13).
- Leah, unwanted and the sister of her husband’s lover, experienced the gift of children because she was unloved (Genesis 29:31).
In John 4:7-27 we hear the story of another woman who most likely felt unloved. She had five husbands and the man she was living with was not one of them. She had many husbands yet no satisfaction, but as you read the exchange between her and Jesus at the well, you learn the secret to satisfaction – living water. Jesus answered and said unto her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life” (John 4:10). The woman left the well that day testifying that Jesus, the Savior of the world, made Himself and His love known to her.
4 Ways to Show Love to a Widow on Valentine’s Day
- Pray that she will look to Jesus, the only one who can satisfy her deepest need.
- Remember her in this lonely season. Send a card, make a call, and invite her to share her story.
- Ask the Lord to show you how you can help meet a practical need, but do not try to fill her void.
- Give her hope, “Weeping will last for the night but joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5, NASB).
There is a world of difference between feeling unloved and being unloved. The truth is that God loves us no matter what.
“We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in Him” (1 John 4:16).
