Isn’t it amazing how the LORD gets us right where He wants us? Sometimes, well many times, I just look up and let Him know just how often He does amaze me. Some days it is through laughter, some through tears and like today, just this look of awe on my face. I just sit still in the moment. Then the silence is broken. “And you are surprised by this?” My thoughts bring me back to reality In looking for the profound, I miss the simple, basic truth. I am so glad that the LORD knows me and He is gentle with me.
I started my devotion this morning and the scripture really got my thoughts churning. I read it again, “For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” (Jer. 2:13) My heart is gripped. How true! What He has offered and I ‘choose’ to dig. I can wear myself thin in this digging, but it does not have to be that way. That is the simple truth that He wanted to remind me.
Just so we are on the same page, lets educate ourselves a little bit. Cisterns, or wells as we know them today, were a commodity in Jeremiah’s day and in many locations still are today. Due to the terrain, the cistern would be cut out of rock within the earth. If the cistern developed a crack the water would seep through and the cistern would be useless. A water source was much needed for life. The water source would be limited by location, livestock and people. Often a new cistern would need to be dug to supply the demand.
The children of Israel had left their Source, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to serve idols. To stock and stone they would bow, sacrifice and worship. They would cry out to dead things, lifeless things to fulfill their need. Wanting something tangible, something to touch, to hold, and to look upon, not caring that there was no breath of life in it. Almighty God, the Fountain of Living Water, the Source had been forsaken for a temporal, hand-made, broken cistern that held no water.
Upon reading this verse and pondering all of these thoughts I could not help but think of ‘idols.’ How many times do I go into ‘fix-it’ mode when circumstances shake me? I don’t have trinkets, stones, or statues that I bow before, but I still stand guilty at times. I run to other things, look to myself or my husband to fix what seems broken. Idols are found where we invest most. Idols are what we are pouring ourselves into. Idols are what we look to for comfort, for place, and for worth. Idols identify “who” we think we are, ‘what’ we can be! Plain and simple, idols are anything and everything that we have above Almighty GOD! These are broken cisterns holding no water. We will always come up empty trusting in a source of such depravity, for it is no source at all. We will be held “slaves” to our idols. We will wear ourselves ragged working for them. In the end, what will we have to show forth? We don’t have to wonder, we find the answer in the latter verses of Jeremiah. The children of Israel wandered playing the harlot. They loved strangers and sought after them. They were ashamed. They were defiled. They were sent into bondage. They were desolate. Our idols will always demand more than we can give. More always needs an update, screams for our attention and desires bigger and better. More is never satisfied and never will be.
WOW! All of that because one verse jumped off of the page and sent my brain spinning. So where is the good part? Every story should have a moral, right? Well, here we go. Verse 21 says this, “Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed”. There is more to this verse I know, but this is what got my attention. The planted vine, the right seed needs a water source. Yes, you guessed it. What better Source than the Fountain of Living Water, the Source that runs everywhere and never runs out? I want to be identified by Him, IN Him! I am the Child of Almighty God, through Jesus Christ, My LORD and Savior. I have ‘full access’ to abundant life no matter what comes before me. I just run myself ragged trying to change what He has ordered for my good. He has full control and He knows what needs to come into my world, my life and rock me to the core … for my good! There is abundant life even on the hard days. How? He is my Father, my Abba Father, and He is making me, designing me to be His image. He is my “Confident Identity.” My worth is found in Him, Him alone and no other. I am supplied by a Deeper Source whom is enough. He is ENOUGH! I want to drink deep! Father, pour in that I may be poured out.
Another great article.