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WHERE DO
YOU FIND LIFE?
Having our physical needs met is not enough. We long for the needs
of our hearts to be fulfilled. We long for security, significance,
and love. Every one of us is thirsty. Unfortunately, many of us
are deceived about where to find what will truly satisfy.
Some dream of finding fulfillment by finding the right husband,
wife, boyfriend or girlfriend. Others believe they will find it in
wealth, power or prestige. What will fill the void? Friendships?
Career? Religion? Pornography? Drugs? Alcohol?
The world can provide everything to us--except what we really
need. God has designed us in such a way that our hearts will never
be satisfied without Him. Listen to His words:
Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no
money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money
and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is
not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Hearken
diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves
with rich nourishment. Incline your ear and come to Me; hear, that
your soul may live (Isaiah 55:1-3).
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).
A well can be either a cistern or a spring. A cistern is a well
that is unable to produce its own water. It can only hold water
that is put into it. A spring, on the other hand, is a continuous
source of water that is ready for drinking. The phrase, the
spring of living water, speaks of Christ--the only well that
can satisfy man's basic needs.
Satisfaction from broken cisterns is not only superficial, it
is also temporary. The tragedy is that many people go from one
broken cistern to another and never discover the spring of living
water.
Why are people digging cisterns? Because they’re still thirsty.
They’re not yet satisfied and they believe that these cisterns can
give them what they are searching for. For example, in Jn.
4:7-30,39-42 Jesus speaks to the woman about living water and her
thirst. Jesus revealed that her dependence on the "wells" of sex
and religion clearly had not satisfied her. The Samaritan woman's
response was to run to tell others she had encountered the Christ.
From her testimony, others came to believe in Christ as the only
well that could satisfy.
When we believe we can meet our own needs, we are unwilling to
let Christ give us life. These passages, along with many others,
give us an opportunity to face our idols. We can begin to see
their ugliness and the way we have tried to find fulfillment in
everything else but God. We are then in a position to confess our
independent spirit, repent from the "cisterns" that cannot meet
our needs, and turn to Christ, the fountain of living water.
Jesus said, "If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink!"
"Come, taste and see that the Lord is good!"
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—Adapted by Jamie Lash from John
Hatfield’s article
in Discipleship Journal, Sept.'93
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