Broken Cisterns Cannot Hold Water
None of us have to look too long or hard to find someone or something wanting to zap our energy, enthusiasm, and excitement. How about that crazy neighbor or annoying co-worker, they just always seem to know what buttons to push. Or maybe that nagging ache in your foot, from a broken toe years ago that never healed correctly. It could be that you have bounced from one relationship to another, all of them ended poorly, and you begin to wonder if “Mr. Right” is even out there. Or it seems that every time you take your car to the garage for routine maintenance the mechanic tells you that major service is needed on your engine. Life is a grind and you just cannot seem find what you are looking for.
It is likely that you either have just faced, or are presently facing, some challenge in your life. Regardless of what it is that zaps your energy, enthusiasm and excitement, it is true that for most of us, we most often try to find our contentment from external circumstances rather than an inner attitude. In a nutshell, we look to the world for contentment rather than drawing it from God.
A verse in Jeremiah speaks to this very thing. It talks of where we draw our water from. In Jeremiah 2:13 we read these words, “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”
While this verse speaks of where to look for all that we need, it is also a verse that speaks of trust. It asks, “Do you trust God or look to the world to provide for all your needs?”
The next time someone or something threatens to steal your contentment, right then and there you have a choice – you can choose to draw from God’s well of living water or you can choose to draw from those other sources, those broken cisterns that have dirty water and so often run dry. When you find yourself in need of a drink, say, “Jesus, you are my source of living water and right now in this situation I come to You, asking You to fill me up,” allowing Him to quiet your spirit and calm your heart.
(Read John 4:1-26 for an encounter Jesus has with a Samaritan woman at a well.)
Remember, broken cisterns cannot hold water, they eventually run dry, so, today, draw from the spring of living water. Then repeat tomorrow, the next day, and every day after that!
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