Stagnant Cisterns

 

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

—Jeremiah 2:13

“Me do it!” We hear this exclamation from the mouths of “Terrible Twos”—those very young children who want to show their independence of others. Unfortunately, the trend continues well into adulthood. We find we would rather do it ourselves than accept God’s provisions for us. The men of Babel revealed this sinful inclination to self-sufficiency when they said in Genesis 11:4:

“Come let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

Sometimes, men and women of sincere faith—like Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration—feel they can “help God” by doing something meaningful for Him. Notice what Peter said in Luke 9:33:

“Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

Why do we offer up these “stagnant waters” from our own “cisterns” and forsake the fresh springs of Living Water that God offers? Not only did God speak to Jeremiah about this kind of sparkling, clean water, but when speaking to the Samaritan woman, Jesus called Himself the “Water of Life.” Jesus said in John 4:13:

“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.”

Jesus not only wants us to quench our spiritual thirst by receiving the Living Water, He wants that water to flow from our lives to others. When speaking at the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem, Jesus told the crowd in John 7:37-38:

“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.

Anything we offer to others, or to God, from our own reservoirs will only leave them running for a mouthwash! When we give the Water of Life—our Lord Jesus Christ—through the power of the Holy Spirit, we arouse their appetites, quench their thirst, and stir to life those who live in the land of death.

Let us forever take a sledgehammer to our old cisterns and fill them with cement. Then daily, let us drink deeply from the Spring of Living Waters, so that we might have something of great value to share with others.

 

 

Our Suitable Portion

 

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

—Psalm 73:26

I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.”

—Lamentations 3:24

I may lose, and lose, and lose: people, place, position, possessions, but not my portion. We tend to take our comfort, our joy, our stability, our sense of well-being, and our balance from these things.

Back in 1967, a study called the Holmes-Rahe Life Stress Inventory identified the top ten stressors they found. The list included:

• death of spouse
  
  
• death of close relative
  
  
• injury or illness
  
  
• being fired from job
  
  
• retirement.
  
  
• marriage
  
  
• separation
  
  
• marriage reconciliation
  
  
• divorce
  
  
• jail
  
  

Personally, I would add: “moving to a new city.” And, from the experience of many Christians, I would add: “strife within the church.”

The human race has never been without stress. Can you imagine how stressed Adam and Eve must have been when God expelled them from the Garden of Eden, their home, into a “big, bad world” they had never known? A world now filled with sin, pain, and death. Stress and loss pretty much sum up the human condition under the rule of sin that permeates every molecule of our existence on this earth.

The Psalm that inspired Martin Luther to write the hymn—“A Mighty Fortress is Our God”—speaks the following from Psalm 46:1-3:

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.

Sometimes we feel like the “earth is giving way.” Everything we have relied upon, or that has helped our sense of stability, can be taken from us. Why does God allow this to happen? I would suggest that God uses such losses to drive us to Him alone. He wants to be the sole portion on which we feed, that which gives us nourishment and gives us delight.

In the 17th century, the Puritan author, Thomas Brooks, wrote: ¹

Our God is a suitable portion. No object is as suitable to the heart as he is. He is a portion that is exactly suited to the condition of the soul in its desires, needs, wants, longings and prayers.

Think about how awesome the banquet of God’s love and provision are to us. He who fed the Israelites in the wilderness for forty years on manna can feed us with everything we need. Yes, the manna gave these people a temporary provision while they waited to taste the full bounty of the Promised Land. But, God gave them all that they really needed, as recorded in Exodus 16:12:

You will be filled with bread.

The Apostle Paul writes of contentment in Philippians 4:12b:

I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

From the lessons of these examples, we see our need to learn contentment and to rejoice in the portion God gives us. Whether our portion today is a wafer of manna, or a feast of the finest foods, let us praise God that He is our portion and He is enough.

______________________

1 Thomas Brooks, Works, 11:27-28 as quoted in Voices from the Past, edited by Richard Rushing.