Broken Cisterns

Every time I read Jeremiah 2, verse 13 pretty much jumps at me:

“My people have done two evil things.
    They turned away from me,
    and they dug their own water cisterns.
I am the source of living water;

    those cisterns are broken and cannot hold water." [erv]

I have to think, what are the broken cisterns that I dig for myself?  What is it that I use to try to fill the thirst inside rather than the Living Water?  What do I chase after to bring me fulfillment rather than Jesus?  

The last phrase says alot, I think...no matter what our "cisterns" are, they are broken and cannot hold water.  They will never satisfy, because whatever happiness/relief/etc they bring won't last.  It can't last, it will only make us need more, and more, and more in an attempt to fill the emptiness inside.  That's how addictions work.  They might make us feel happy or satisfied or secure, but only for a short time.  Then we need more to get the good feelings again.  That's how the addiction cycle gets stronger every time we go around it, because our needs are really not met, they are only growing with our futile attempts to fill them.  

"I am the source of Living Water."  God is the only way to truly fill us.  It's only in Him that we can find true fulfillment.  He is the only way to true joy and peace.  

Isaiah 55:1 says, 

"All you people who are thirsty, come!
    Here is water for you to drink."

John 4, verses 10b and 14 say, 

“ If you knew, you would have asked me, and I would have given you living water.”

"But anyone who drinks the water I give will never be thirsty again. The water I give people will be like a spring flowing inside them. It will bring them eternal life.”

I don't know about you, but for me, I choose the living water from God.  I don't want to live my life a slave to addictions that only take me in circles and are more binding all the time. I don't want to always have to keep digging more and deeper "cisterns" to try and fulfill the emptiness inside.  I choose to go to the Fountain of Living Water.

O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go

"O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go" has been a favorite song of mine for a while...the lyrics and music together are so beautiful, so majestic, so moving.  And when I learned the story behind the song, I loved it all the more, so I decided to share it here with you. 
"O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go" was written on the evening of [George] Matheson’s sister’s marriage. Years before, he had been engaged, until his fiancée learned that he was going blind—that there was nothing the doctors could do—and she told him that she could not go through life with a blind man. He went blind while studying for the ministry, and his sister had been the one to care for him through the years, but now she was gone. He was now 40, and his sister’s marriage brought a fresh reminder of his own heartbreak. It was in the midst of this circumstance and intense sadness that the Lord gave Matheson this hymn, which he said was written in five minutes. ~Wikipedia

lyrics from Cyber Hymnal

O Love that wilt not let me go,

I rest my weary soul in thee;

I give thee back the life I owe,

That in thine ocean depths its flow

May richer, fuller be.

O light that followest all my way,

I yield my flickering torch to thee;

My heart restores its borrowed ray,

That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day

May brighter, fairer be.

O Joy that seekest me through pain,

I cannot close my heart to thee;

I trace the rainbow through the rain,

And feel the promise is not vain,

That morn shall tearless be.

O Cross that liftest up my head,

I dare not ask to fly from thee;

I lay in dust life’s glory dead,

And from the ground there blossoms red

Life that shall endless be.

One interesting note about the lyrics--even though the author was blind and would only have memories of seeing colors, in the last two verses it talks about brilliant colors [rainbow, red] that Matheson looked forward to seeing again in Heaven.