Be appalled at this, O heavens, and shudder with great horror,
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.2:12-13
Jeremiah summarised the stubborn independence of the sinful Israel with a powerful image: On the one hand a spring of Living Water and on the other a self-dug defunct cistern. (A cistern was a hole dug in the ground and lined with clay that would hold rainwater)
Jesus described what a God-connected life could look like in John 7:
"If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive."
Imagine the contrast between that life-giving stream and the stagnant puddles one might find in a broken cistern. (Come on! Stop! Don't read any more until you've imagined it!) Stream vs Stagnant Puddle!
Spiritually speaking - this is true for many of us - we're trying to live on past spiritual experiences - making excuses of busy-ness and stress and so we ignore the Living Stream of the Holy Spirit's still small voice and try to cope on cistern water.
Why do we do this?
Maybe I'm speaking for myself, but I think there are two big factors:
1. We're chicken! We're scared that the Still Small Voice is going to challenge us out of our comfort zones!
2. We are rebelliously independent - we want to be in charge. Going to the Stream means we do it on His terms not ours. And so we drink cistern water in the ultimate act of cutting off our noses to spite our faces.
Maybe its time for some deliberate dependence: I won't take another step into this day without taking a drink from the Stream.
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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
