Quenched?

From the beginning, the Bible describes God's relationship with His people, which started out with great promise, but over time the people repeatedly proved unfaithful, giving their affection to other gods.

We see in Jeremiah 2:5:

This is what the LORD says;

  "What fault did your ancestors find in me, that they strayed so far from me? They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves."

The gods they worshipped were empty, unreal and worthless, and the people like the gods they worshipped were empty.

 In Jeremiah 2:13 the LORD declares:

"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 highlights that the people not only abandoned God, but they tried to find refreshment from other gods.

Are we any different today?

We can fill our lives with many things that make us drift away from God; or are having a season in our lives when we are too busy or distracted to spend time with God. The problem comes, when we grow to want them more than we want God, and we grow to love them more than we love God.

It breaks God's heart when we prefer what this world offers, whilst not drinking from the fountain that He provides.

How do we know if this is true for us?

Nancy Guthrie in her book 'God does His best work with empty' challenges us to use Psalm 73:25 -26 as a test.

Can we say these words of this Psalm and really mean them?

"Whom have I in heaven but you?

And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart will fail,

but God is the strength of my heart

and my portion forever."

The things that take up our time, what we talk about the most, it could be our hobbies, sport, leisure activities, work or it could be a person or material things such as cars, houses, clothes, shoes and handbags!

Anyone or anything, that rivals the place that belongs to God alone, is the cistern we have dug ourselves to drink from.

Initially, this other cistern may be sufficient, it may taste sweet, but what we will find in time, is that this cistern is cracked and broken, it will not hold water, because these things will not be able to deliver the happiness, security and life we crave.

In John 7: 37-38:

"On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, 'Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them."

Using water, Jesus shows us how we are all spiritually parched and dehydrated and that only He alone can quench our thirsty souls. Once we taste the living water of God, we have no need for the old things that used to temporarily quench our thirst.

No other source can provide the life that Jesus can provide. His perfect life made it so we can have His righteousness; His death made it so our sins can be washed away; His new life made it so we can have life too!

Jesus returned to heaven promising to return, but in the meantime the third person of the Trinity, God the Spirit, came to live with and within His children and remind us of the satisfaction we have in Him, when we are tempted to drink from other cisterns.

The Holy Spirit works through God's children so they can grow in His character and point others to the One with living water.

"Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life." - Revelation 22:17b

Jesus is offering the "water" that will quench the thirst of our very soul. Best of all, He says it's a "free gift" which is all ours, through faith.

What an offer!

God bless