Are we Drinking from Living Water or Cracked Cisterns?

For my people have done two evil things: They have abandoned me—the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all! Jeremiah 2:13

One hot summer day, I filled a jug with water and tea bags and let the tea brew in the sun all day. That evening I transferred the tea to a pitcher and placed it in my refrigerator. A couple hours later I opened the door only to find a puddle of tea running down the shelf from an unnoticed crack in my pitcher. My broken pitcher couldn’t hold any tea.

We run the risk of being like that cracked pitcher.

In the passage above, God is lamenting how His people, the Israelites, have abandoned Him. He was offering them an abundant life in a covenant relationship with Him. He referred to Himself as the fountain of living water. Yet the people tired of that relationship and turned from God to cracked cisterns, which could hold no water at all. In other words, the people abandoned God and started to worship the false idols of the nations around them. When they did this, they themselves became marred by sin, no longer able to have a healthy relationship with God.

Why would they do this?

Their bloom of love for God had faded. Somewhere along the years, they tired of the relationship, of following God’s rules. To them it probably looked as if their neighbors in the nations around them were having a lot more fun than they were. The neighbors didn’t have nearly as many laws to uphold. The Israelites were looking for the next exciting thing.

Have you ever felt like that?

When we become bored, we often disconnect from God. When we stop reading His word, praying, studying the Bible, worshiping, and listening to Him, we are at risk for exchanging the truth of God for lies. We become vulnerable to the temptations around us. We allow our red, hot love to cool to lukewarm mediocrity, and if we don’t reconnect, we may let our relationship fizzle out all together. Soon we find we’ve wandered over to the land of the cracked-pot gods doing things we should never be doing, wondering how we got there.

Reignite the flames

If your spiritual life has burned out, reignite the flames. Recommit to prayer and ask God to show you what your purpose is for this season of life. Make time with Him a priority each day. And start looking for the opportunities He is providing that you have been missing, while saying no to the opportunities the enemy has deceived you with. Keep the fires of your first-love God going. His creativity and love for us never fades. After all, He is the fountain of living, read that life-giving, love-breathing water. Be a vessel that is intact enough to hold and absorb that water and then share it with others.

August Reading Plan: Thirsty for God

Day 1: Psalm 1

Day 2: John 4:7-14

Day 3: Psalm 105:41-45

Day 4: Judges 15:18-19

Day 5: Psalm 23

Day 6: Isaiah 43:18-21

Day 7: Psalm 42

Day 8: 1 Corinthians 10:1-4

Day 9: Nehemiah 9:11-15

Day 10: John 6:27-35

Day 11: John 7:37-42

Day 12: Isaiah 55:1-6

Day 13: Psalm 63

Day 14: Matthew 5:1-12

Day 15: Matthew 10:37-42

Day 16: Matthew 14:23-36

Day 17: Revelation 7:12-17

Day 18: Zechariah 14:1-8

Day 19: Revelation 21:4-7

Day 20: Amos 8:11-14

Day 21: Matthew 3

Day 22: Mark 4:35-41

Day 23: Exodus 15:22-26

Day 24: James 3:4-13

Day 25: Revelation 22:1-5

Day 26: Matthew 8:23-27

Day 27: Luke 5:1-11

Day 28: John 2:1-11

Day 29: John 5:1-9

Day 30: John 19:31-35

Day 31: Revelation 22:16-21

The 12 Days of Easter, Day 8: Water of Life

Day 8: Water of Life

And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.” Rev 21:6

water [waw-ter, wot-er]

noun

1. flowing water, or water moving in waves

2. the surface of a stream, river, lake, ocean,

3. to furnish water to (a region), as by streams; supply (land) with water, as by irrigation

In Jesus’ time, it was hard to underestimate the importance of water. Wells were a gathering point for a village or community as the people came to draw water for the day’s cooking, cleaning, eating, and watering of the livestock and crops. Cisterns were used to collect every drop of water possible.

Consequently, when Jesus said He would give “the fountain of the water of life freely to Him who thirsts,” He was using words that resonated deeply with the people on many levels. First of all, the word freely is important. The people could have as much of this living water as they wanted and needed. No drought would effect it, nor would the supply be limited by what they could carry or who owned the well.

The phrase him who thirsts is also pivotal. Everyone gets thirsty, so everyone is eligible to receive living water if they want it, not just a privileged few.

For greater insight, we must also consider John 4:1-26. In this passage, Jesus delves deep into the hearts of the people with a lesson about Living Water. Jesus meets and talks to a Samaritan woman who is at a well drawing water. This was unusual for two reasons. First, Samaritans and Jews had a longstanding dislike and distrust of each other, and secondly, men usually did not address women in public unless they were family members.

But Jesus breaks with that convention for an important reason: He gives her an opportunity to change her life. He tells her in verses 13 and 14 that the water He gives is different; it will become “a spring of water welling up to eternal life, and those who drink it will never be thirsty again” — truly a revolutionary idea that her spiritual thirst could be eternally satisfied.

These scripture passages are just as relevant to us today as they were to the people thousands of years ago. Although many of us have easy access to water, we are still a spiritually thirsty people. Only Jesus can quench that thirst, and He does that by offering His well of eternal life that will never run dry.

point to ponder

Do you draw deeply from your well of eternal life as you go about your days? We can never plumb the depths of what Jesus has for us. This should not be a “one and done.” Give your life to Jesus, and then spend the rest of it drinking deeply, growing and learning and sharing this gift of eternal life with others.

prayer

Lord,

We thank you for quenching our thirst for redemption with Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. May we draw deeply from this well each day, living our lives in Your power, finding our callings and contentment in You. In Jesus’ name.

Amen.

previous posts

Day 1 : Breath of Life

Day 2: The Life

Day 3. Eternal Life

Day 4. The Life Which I Now Live

Day 5. All the Days of Your Life

Day 6: The Book of Life

Day 7: Word of Life

The 12 Days of Easter, Day 4: The Life Which I Now Live

Day 4: The Life Which I Now Live

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Galations 2:20

live¹[liv]

verb

1. to feed or subsist (usually followed by on or upon):

2. to dwell or reside (usually followed by in, at, etc.)

3. to pass life in a specified manner

As we consider the verb live in the passage above, we see that as followers of Jesus, we don’t have to live out our lives on earth in our own strength. Rather, it is Christ who actually lives in us. The Greek word for live is zao. Exploring its meaning gives us amazing insight into what kind of life Jesus means for us to have. According to the Blue Letter Bible, zao means, “active, blessed, endless in the kingdom of God.” It also means “living water, having vital power in itself and exerting the same upon the soul.”

During a recent vacation in Florida, I was riding with a cycling tour group. I could feel the sweat trickling down my head as I huffed and puffed my way to the next stop. Not accustomed to the heat and humidity, I felt my energy slipping away with each pedal. I finally made it to the break area and guzzled a bottle of cold, fresh water. My energy and vitality and desire to make it to the finish ramped back up, and I hit the trail again.

Too many of us are trying to live our lives without our spring of Living Water. We are huffing and puffing our way through jobs, callings, and relationships without tapping into our spiritual source of strength. Everyone has times of tiredness, but if we are not experiencing any active, powerful, blessed times of walking with God, then we need a fresh drink of Living Water. Perhaps we are quenching the Spirit through sin, or we are just forgetting to ask God to fill us with a fresh breath of His Spirit. When we live by faith in the Son of God, He gives us strength and power for the journey.