“For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns; broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:13).
EVERYTHING WE WERE EVER CREATED TO NEED CAN BE FOUND IN THE GOD WHO MADE US. But we don’t always allow Him to satisfy us. Even though the fulfillment that is available in God is perfect in every way, we still make the mistake from time to time of looking for our satisfaction in other places. And when we do so, we do the same thing the people of Judah did in Jeremiah’s day: we forsake “the fountain of living waters” and drink from “broken cisterns that can hold no water.” When we could be slaking our thirst with the fresh waters of a sparkling spring, we content ourselves with the stagnant contents of a holding tank. This does not make good sense. Why would we do such a foolish thing?
Generally, we do foolish things when we have been deceived as to the facts of our situation. And when it comes to the created needs that are deep within us, we have a spiritual adversary who is a master at making his cheap counterfeits look better than the fulfillments that God offers. The devil’s deceptions are not clever enough to withstand very close scrutiny and it’s only a matter of time until we discover the truth — but in the short term, he can make black look white and white, black. He can actually lead us to believe that a broken cistern is better than the fountain of living water. And unfortunately, he has had a certain amount of success in getting us to live on the basis of that lie.
Life is full of discoveries, however, and many of them are sad ones. “A thousand voices clamor for our attention, and a thousand causes vie for our support. But until we have learned to be satisfied with fellowship with God, until he is our rock and our fortress, we will be restless with our place in the world” (Erwin W. Lutzer). In the long run, if not in the short, we find that nothing we’ve ever substituted for God has quenched our thirst. Eternity is in our hearts, and nothing but God can satisfy our souls.
“Father I know now, if I never knew it before, that only in Thee can my restless human heart find any peace. For I began life without knowledge, but full of needs. And the turmoil of my mind, the dissatisfaction of my life all stem from trying to meet those needs with the wrong things and in the wrong places” (Peter Marshall).
Gary Henry — WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com
