Leaky 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

Whenever I read some of the Old Testament accounts of the children of Israel, I shake my head in dismay. I pity their foolishness and scoff at their thick-headedness. Over and again they fall into the same pattern; they obey God for a period of time, but when that gets too difficult or boring, they decide to try things their own way. As they spend less time relying on God, they begin to fall on hard times. Realizing their miserable state and their need for God, they cry out to Him. God hears them, delivers them and blesses them, only to have them fall away once more. And on it goes...ad infinitum ad nauseum.

As I examine my own heart, I see that I too have behaved like the Old Testament Israelites. I have run to God and clung to Him in times of need, but then I complain about how He carries out His will in my life. The stronger my faith gets, the less I do this, but I know it takes work to repair my leaky cistern. Each time I have tried to go against God, I have been acting sinfully. Trying to live on anything other than the living water He offers is impossible.

The act of pulling away from God causes our cisterns to crack and the living water from God to leak out. Without this life source we have nothing to sustain ourselves during times of trial. When we stay away from God we run the risk of spiritual dehydration. Eventually, our souls become as dry as the desert and we cry out to God, begging Him for even one drop of that life-giving water we know He has for us.

God is merciful. He repairs our hearts and our cisterns, and fills them to overflowing, allowing us to drink in His satisfying love and forgiveness. If hunger is the best seasoning, then in a similar way, living water is all the more refreshing to a parched soul.