By Annie Rodriguez – Vidalia, GA
Our fallen world exists in a creation gripped with the grief of “separation anxiety” from our Creator. It is infected with sin, a poison so insidious that it lured mankind’s desires from pure to putrid.
In Adam, we became marked as enemies of heaven and our sentence, death. Humanity’s divide from God makes the widest gap of the Grand Canyon seem but a hopscotch jump in comparison to sin’s dark and endless abyss.
Touched by Jesus
But God, in His unfathomable mercy and grace, made a way to heal the world of this terminal and infectious disease. God’s remedy is simple, that we would know the crucified and risen savior, Jesus Christ.
It is through knowing Jesus that our lovesickness is forever healed, sin’s chasm closed, our desires made pure, and our souls exonerated.
Image by Conger Design
I am not talking about merely knowing Jesus’ biography. Anyone can fill themself fat with facts and bloat their intellect with verses.
But not everyone has experienced his touch. Too often as believers, we settle for knowing our Lord’s accomplishments yet forgetting that what Jesus suffered was not only to pay for sin… it was to win our hearts, to spark our souls aflame with a love so irresistible that we would crave nothing else!
Too often, we forget that to be separated from his love would trigger agony so cavernous and groanings so deep that we would cry out with furious desire for even a whisper of his tender voice.
Only in his presence does our gray turn into day and desperation dissipates, vaporized by the burning passion of Calvary.
The crushing loads of life fall from our shoulders when we fix our eyes on the one who rolled aside death’s boulder.
“Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, [Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome] came to the tomb when the sun had risen.
And they said among themselves, “Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?”
But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away – for it was very large.” Mark 16:2-4 NKJV
The terrorizing waves of our thoughts that cripple us with fear and anxiety settle down when we call out to the one who walks on water and commands the storms to cease.
It’s at that moment that peace breaks through the clouds of doubt. Shores of hope peak over the horizon of our heart’s homeward journey to the safe harbor of the Lord’s unfailing love.
To Know Him Intimately
“And this is eternal life, that they know [ginōskō] you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” John 17:3 NKJV
This Greek word ginōskō is known in Jewish culture as an idiom for the communion between a man and his wife. The intimacy of intimacy, true oneness.
As marriage is sacred between man and wife, even more sacred is God’s invitation to be in covenant with us through Jesus. There are secrets, revelations, whispers and dreams that the Lord wants to give those who love him.
To chase anything outside of Jesus is to give ourselves over to lesser lovers, auctioning off the holy chamber of our heart to worldly paramours.
Yet when anyone encounters the Man from Galilee, perfect and glorious, who and what can compare? His love is better than wine and his name is like oil poured out beckoning us to come and sit at his feet to simply enjoy him.
The Savior’s Love
Jesus is “lovesick” for us. How can this be? Oh, but it is! Look no further but to turn your gaze to the blood-stained cross of Calvary and you’ll discover…
… heaven’s perfection given for the profane,
… the righteous king murdered as a criminal,
… the roaring lion brought to slaughter as a lamb,
… glory that became acquainted with grief,
… humanity’s faithful lover betrayed and abandoned,
… the one who spoke no lie slandered and defamed,
… the light of the world left to die in darkness,
… him who drank the cup of bitterness to give us the chalice of victory.
Thank God a lovesick savior came and laid himself down. In Philippians chapter three, it’s no wonder that we read a passionate text from the Apostle Paul who, in light of God’s incomprehensible love, left his old life behind for the supreme prize of knowing Christ Jesus.
“Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him” Philippians 3:8,9a NLT
Receive His Love
Friend, come to the nail-pierced feet of Jesus and receive his love today!
Let your lovesickness be cured by his passion. Let the hardened parts of our hearts be pierced open by the spear he received in his side.
May every reservation to give Jesus all be laid to waste knowing he emptied himself for us when we were yet sinners.
May we be unashamed to lavish our affection on Jesus, for he is worthy to receive the full reward of his suffering—a people desperate for him.
May we cry out to Jesus and become undone by his touch and enraptured by his voice.
We serve a Lord who finds pleasure in knowing us. Jesus longs for us as the sunflower longs for the sun. The Lord is looking for lovers before he is looking for laborers, for it is our love that fuels our labor.
May we give ourselves away to Jesus as living sacrifices willing to go wherever he calls and to do whatever he asks. There is nothing else that matters, there is no one else that compares.
Watch Annie preach this message at a streamed live service YES! Camp 2024 – Love Sick.
Annie says the Lord rescued her in the summer of 2008 during a fellowship in Trinity, Florida. She served as a Fellow Laborer with Christian Family Fellowship in 2012-2013. She now lives in Vidalia, Georgia, working as an Orthodontic Assistant for Smile Doctors and serving on the prayer team with her local church Connection Vidalia.