Broken Cisterns
"They have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water" (Jer. 2:13).
"If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink" (John 7:37).
What an infinite mistake to miss the fountain freely flowing to quench our thirst, and to hew out broken cisterns, in which is disappointment and despair. Many such may read these words – each with soul-thirst craving satisfaction; each within reach of God, whose nature is as rock- water for those that are athirst, but they are attempting the impossible task of satisfying the craving for the infinite and divine, with men and the things of sense.
There is the cistern of pleasure, engraved with fruits and flowers, wrought at the cost of health and peace; the cistern of wealth, gilded and inlaid with costly gems; the cistern of human love, which, however fair and beautiful, can never satisfy the soul that rests in it alone – all these, erected at infinite cost of time and strength, are treacherous and disappointing.
At our feet the fountain of God’s love is flowing through the channel of Jesus Christ, the divine Man. He says to each of us: ‘Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst’. We must descend to the level of the stream, if its waters are to flow over our parched lips to slake our thirst. We must come back to Calvary, take our stand at the foot of the cross, hear again the words of him who died there for us, saying, ‘I thirst’, that he might be able to give the water of life freely to all who come to him.
You who are weary of your toil, drop your tools, and come back to God. Forsake the alliances, the friendships, the idolatries, the sins which have alienated you from your best Friend. Open your heart, that he may create in you the fountain of living water, leaping up to eternal life. ‘ The Spirit and the Bride say, Come! And let him that heareth say, Come! And let him that is athirst, Come! And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.’
‘I came to Jesus, and I drank
Of that Life-giving stream;
My thirst was quenched, my soul revived,
And now I live in him.’
Prayer: Teach us, O Lord, the art of so living in fellowship with thyself that every act may be a psalm, every meal a sacrament, every room a sanctuary, every thought a prayer. Amen.
*Excerpted from Our Daily Walk: Daily Readings by F. B. Meyer (Christian Heritage, 2010).
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