March 16, 2022

Jeremiah 2: 13 (NIV)

“My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug cisterns that cannot hold water.”

We will never be happy until we make God the source of our fulfillment and the answer to our longings.*

If you walk away from your spouse but remain celibate for the rest of your life, you are still being unfaithful. Being true to your marriage vows is about more than sex. Similarly, if you turn away from God as the source of living water (salvation), even if you don’t actually bow down to another object of worship, by default you have replaced God with a manmade container that can’t hold water. Trusting in anything other than God is unfaithfulness (idolatry).

What are people looking for in these leaky cisterns when they choose to walk away from God? The commentaries I consulted seemed to think these folks are searching for happiness. Perhaps we might fine-tune the thought and say they are seeking fulfillment. They look for fulfillment in wealth, pleasure, other religions, jobs, self-empowerment, and more, but these things are stored in broken cisterns. The leak may be slow but the well will inevitably run dry.

Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well, “Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4: 14) That’s the well I want to draw my water from!

There is nothing wrong with these things [income, investments, education, jobs, homes, insurance, and relationships] – until they become replacements for our trust in God.  When Christians try to create their own protection, it may be because we are attached to the plans we have made instead of the plans God has for us.*