The Fountain of Living Water

Lets read from the Book of Jeremiah for today's meditation,

My people have committed two evils:

They have abandoned Me, the fountain of living water,

and they have carved out their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

[Jeremiah 2:13]

The Lord says He is the fountain of Living Water in our lives. But He is worried that we His people have abandoned Him. At many times we abandon the Lord and follow our own ways. Enjoyment of everlasting bliss is the ultimate goal of human existence, and God alone is the abode of everlasting bliss; God-realization and God-consciousness must be the sole objective of human life. On careful thought there is nothing so simple, easy and convenient as surrendering oneself to God and that is what He expects from us. Many of us waste our human life carving our broken cisterns such as money, respect, pride, pleasure that can never really help attain everlasting bliss.

The Lord uses the illustration of a broken cistern to point out the extreme foolishness of God's people, Israel. This message was spoken as a rebuke to people who were no longer totally committed to their God. Certainly the broken cistern sermon has an application for God's people today. Jeremiah preached and lived in a day when the people of Judah, the southern portion of the nation of Israel, had turned away from the Living God to do their own thing. No longer were they devoted to the Lord or depending on Him to meet their spiritual needs. People had turned away from the Fountain of living waters and were looking everywhere else for something to quench their spiritual thirst. They had dug cisterns of idolatry and immorality for themselves in the hopes that the fleshly pleasures of those sins would satisfy their needs. But the people of Judah found that the cisterns of their own making were broken cisterns that could hold no refreshing water - not even a little bit! Notice that the cisterns did not become broken after some time of holding water. No, they were broken from the day they were built. They never held any water. This is always true of cisterns of our own making. Self-made attempts and schemes designed to find spiritual fulfillment apart from the Lord will inevitably result in failure--they are doomed from the start. Only God Himself can quench our spiritual thirst.

When the foolish people of Judah turned away from the Lord who had done so much for them, they were guilty of two evils. Trying to construct an artificial reservoir for collecting spiritual water was bad enough, but to turn away and reject the water from the life-giving Spring was tragic! How could anyone in his right mind do such a thing? Imagine yourself as a very thirsty person in a parched land, turning away from a bubbling spring of cool water to hack out a cistern in the dirt, under the parched sun, in the hopes of collecting some rain water! If no natural spring existed nearby, digging a cistern would be the best thing you could do. If a spring was nearby and you didn't know it, you would be in a pathetic situation, but at least you could be pitied for your diligent efforts to try to collect some water. But if you did know that there was a good spring of running water readily available, and you deliberately turned your back on this life-giving source to construct a cistern, you would be incredibly foolish. There would be no sympathy or pity for you when your digging efforts resulted in an empty, broken cistern!

This is precisely the illustration that God painted in words to show His people how utterly foolish and guilty they were when they turned away from Him.

Is it possible that some of God's people today are guilty of the same two evils that the people of Judah committed in Jeremiah's day? Is it possible that we've become so accustomed to the Living Water that we've wandered away from the Fountain to see if there's some water available elsewhere? Have we foolishly gotten involved in constructing our own cisterns?

Today we hear God's calling in our lives, to return to the fountain of living water,

My son, give me your heart

And let your eyes delight in my ways,

[Proverbs 23:26]

St. Paul gives a clear message to the Romans in his letter to return to the fountain of living water,

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, to present your bodies, dedicating all of yourselves, as a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God, which is your rational act of worship.

[Romans 12:1]

Also St. Paul warns us about the broken cistern,

Do not be conformed to this world any long with its superficial values and customs, but be transformed and progressively changed by renewing of your mind, focusing on Godly values and ethical attitudes...

[Romans 12:2]

Dependence on this principle of surrendering oneself to God is of supreme importance. Surrendering oneself to God leads to God realization and the disappearance of all obstacles. Now let us consider "How to Surrender?". Surrender does not consist in betaking oneself to the Lord verbally. The total and exclusive surrender to the Lord may be achieved by,

• Exclusive dependence on God,
• Recognizing that God alone is one's greatest refuge, ultimate resort and everything.
• Relinquishing 
• shame, 
• fear, 
• pride, 
• love of praise and attachment, 
• sense of identity with one's flesh &
• feeling of ownership and attachment to worldly possessions.
• Constantly remembering the virtues and glories of the Lord and Meditating on His Word.
• Selfless commitment to one's duties as enjoyed by the Lord for the sake of the Lord Himself and thinking of Him all time.

Remember the words of our Lord Jesus Christ from the gospel, we read,

There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into eternal life, keep the commandments.

If you wish to be perfect, go and sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come follow Me.

[Matthew 19:17 & 21]