How Watertight is your Cistern?

"For my people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water." Jer. 2:13

I know there are times in my life when I have forsaken the Lord. Where I've given Him up for things I desire out of this world. Idols can be anything that takes you and your time away from the Lord. For me, it tends to be TV and the computer. For others, they are like the women at the well who doesn't know she is standing in the presence of Jesus. "Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." (John 4:10). This women was living a life far from the life the Lord has called us to live. She found her idol in promiscuity. I'm sure she felt a hole in her heart and was trying to fill it up with the love of many men.

It's almost worse for those of us who know the truth and yet seek pleasure out of something other then the Lord. I know TV and the computer don't fill me up but rather fills me up with unnecessary junk. It's like those broken cisterns that can't hold water. My study notes say, "Watertight plaster was used to keep cisterns from losing water. Idols, like broken cisterns, will always fail their worshipers; by contrast, God provides life abundant and unfailing."

The women at the well was lost and filling herself up with something that wasn't lasting. We see that she had been in 7 relationships and was currently living a man that wasn't her husband. And yet, right before her at that well was the one true man who could fill that hole and seal it and make it watertight. Psalm 36:9 says, "For with You is the fountain of life, in Your light we see light."

God says, "Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters . . . " (Isaiah 55:1). He also says in Rev. 21:6, "Then He said to me, "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost." I believe every one of us has the ability to hear God's calling. He created us to need Him. Yet for most of us, the call goes unheard because of what we fill ourselves up with. For others, we hear the call and receive Jesus as our Savior yet allow ourselves to be muddled up by the call of the world.

I pray that those who don't know Him will be touched by someone who does. That their ears may become fine tuned to the frequency to hear God and realize that what He offers is free. I also pray that we who know Him will continue to fine tune our ears to hear God's voice through scripture, prayer and memorizing. It's so easy to have our attention drawn away. And yet, we are here to draw those to Jesus. We have a responsibility to those who don't know Him to seek Him and know Him intimately so that He can use us for His glory. So that He can use us to serve Him and witness for Him. Let's do away with our broken cisterns!

Krista Jones
8.12.08


Bible Reading Guide:

Beginning to End: Isaiah 9-12
Old and New Testaments Together: Psalm 51-53 & Romans 2
Historical: Proverbs 13-15
Chronological: Isaiah 54-58
Blended: Psalm 51-53 & Acts 20:17-38

The Bible reading guides will be taken from Back to the Bible