When I was a young girl, we had well water and I have to say, I don’t think I appreciated it enough at the time. My grandparents who were on city water used to bring empty jugs to fill up before going home because, as my granddaddy would say, “Nothing tastes as good as well water.” After years of being on city water, I can now wholeheartedly agree with him. I miss that good, cold, refreshing water we used to have. There’s just something about that water coming up from the ground that tastes so good!
I thought about this today as I was reading a passage from Jeremiah where God was talking to His people. In Jeremiah 2:13 He said, “For My people have committed a double evil: They have abandoned Me, the fountain of living water, and dug cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that cannot hold water.” God was saying that His people had not only committed evil by forsaking Him but in their foolishness, they had added to their evil by trying to find their own source of living water.
They had tried to replace God with something but had been as successful as trying to collect water with as sieve! God is the source of living water, the type of water that is alive, and fresh, flowing from an underground supply that continues without end. Picture a bubbling spring gushing with fresh water. This would be an accurate description of what God is to His people. He was the source of all that His people needed and yet they had turned their backs on Him.
Not only had they turned their backs on Him, but they had also tried to dig their own wells, in other words, they tried to find what can only be found in Him, anywhere but in Him. They were trying to meet their own needs. They were trying to find their own source of nourishment. They were trying to find a way to quench that thirst deep within their hearts by doing it their own way, but it wasn’t working. Their attempts were not working, and they were being met with brokenness and emptiness.
I don’t know about you, my friend, but sometimes when I read the Bible, I feel like somebody’s done told on me! There are times I literally cringe as I read certain verses because I see myself in them. I confess I have certainly done my share of digging broken cisterns! I have done more than my share of trying it my own way or as the saying goes, “looking for love in all the wrong places”. I have tried to find fulfillment in things that had no real value and couldn’t really help me.
I have drunk from broken cisterns as I tried to fill up on things I hoped would bring me satisfaction and comfort. I have worn myself out trying to work my way into feeling better, being good enough, or to feel deserving of love. Beloved, no matter how hard we may try, we will never dig a well deep enough or good enough to find the fulfillment that only the living water of God can bring! When we try to find satisfaction in anything but God, we will never find complete satisfaction.
Our best attempts are only going to result in broken cisterns which won’t hold water. We will only find partial satisfaction no matter how hard we try. We were born with God-sized holes in our hearts that only He can fill and no matter how hard we try, nothing else can fill that hole. I don’t know about you, my friend, but if you give me the choice between a gushing spring of water or a broken cistern, I’m going to choose the spring! I want to drink the good water!
Dear heart, may I offer a bit of advice? Don’t try to find fulfillment in anything but Him. You were created to love the One who loves you. Put Him first, and all the other stuff will fall into place. Don’t wear yourself out digging broken cisterns. Don’t exhaust yourself trying to find what you need in everything but Him. Let Him refresh your heart and soul with His living waters today. Go to Him, drink deeply of the water He offers you and find what your heart is longing for.
Have you ever been really thirsty? I mean the kind where your mouth was dry, and you were desperately in need of something to drink. How good does some cold refreshing water taste in that moment?! Beloved, may I ask you some personal questions? Are you feeling thirsty? Are you going through a dry spell? Have you been feeling less than refreshed, excited, or spiritually alive, dear heart? Do you know what else the living water of God symbolizes?
It symbolizes the Holy Spirit of God. You know… that same Spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead (Rom. 8:11). The same Spirit that brought new life to every believer, the One that lives inside of every follower of Jesus Christ, is the Living Water that we have access to. There is no reason for us to feel dry, thirsty, or lacking in spiritual fervor; we have all we need in Him. When we find ourselves feeling this way, it is a clear sign that we need to get alone with Him and ask Him to refresh our heart.
It is a clear sign that we need time alone in His presence so that we can ask Him to pour out a fresh dose of that living water on our souls. We need to ask Him to help us fall in love with Him again. We need to be drenched in the saturating, liberating, soul-quenching living water of God. Beloved, you have access to living water, the kind that is fresh, living, and unending. You have deep within you a spring flowing with living water. In Him, you have all that you need!
Dear heart, may I encourage you to drink deeply from the living water of God today and allow Him to be everything you need. Lay aside everything that you have been using to try to fill that longing in your heart and let Him fill that hole. Turn your eyes and your heart to Him, ask Him to fill you afresh with His living water, and drink deeply from His fountain again. Let Him refresh your heart and soul as only He can and ask Him to give you a renewed passion for Him.
But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:14
Whoever believes in me, as the Scriptures has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” John 7:38
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. Isaiah 12:3
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. Rev. 22:1
Katrina Douglas
8/30/2022
