I listened to a podcast the other day entitled, ‘Does it hold water?'  In this sermon, Mike Patz, pastor of First Assembly of God in Gainesville, Florida was asking us to examine ourselves to see if our lives would, in fact, “hold water”.  This question came from the passage in Jeremiah 2:13 that says, “ For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and fashioned them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” 

 

He gave an example of an old pair of corduroy pants that he had owned for a long time.  After years of wear and tear, those pants had holes in the front two pockets.  Anything that he put into those front pockets would fall right to his shoes! As a result, all of the things that he needed to carry with him now had to fit into his two back pockets!  One night he went on a date with his wife.  He had several things he needed to take such as his cell phone, wallet, keys, etc. His cell phone and keys ended up in the same back pocket.  Later on in the evening, he went to take his phone out and found that he had crushed the phone into his keys.  Now, the glass from the screen of his cell phone was crushed into pieces in his pocket.  He said that he was “foolish” to have worn those pants because they could not hold the things that they needed to hold. 

 

Just like those pants, many times our lives don't hold the things that they need to hold.  In the above scripture in Jeremiah, we try to fashion our lives after these “broken cisterns”.  We don't think that we want what God can provide for us…this “living water”.  It pleases us much more to try and do things on our own…but in reality we end up collecting a lot of things in our “cisterns” that are foolish.  These cisterns that they speak of in this passage were put into the rocks and collected the rainwater, but they also collected the dirt from the rocks, bugs, spiders, silt, etc. This was not the most efficient way of collecting water.

 

Like the dirt and bugs into the cisterns, it seems to us that the junk that we collect in our lives is somehow better than what God could provide.  We take for granted this “gospel,” this “living water” that can make us never spiritually thirst again.  Maybe we think we don't deserve it.  Maybe we think it's too good to be true.  However, in reality, it's all that we really need. 

 

In 1 Peter 1:10-12 it says this, “Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. 12It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things”. 

 

I don't really know who reads my blog.  I do know, however, that there are people who read it and I do not know where you stand with God, salvation, etc. This year, on The World Race, I've learned a lot about God meeting us where we are in life.  If you've collected all that junk in your “cistern”…he'll meet you there and begin to clean it out, if you want that.  If you don't even know that God is really there, that he truly loves you, or that He can really change your life for the better…give Him a little credit.  Ask Him to show you these things, to show you who He is.  It probably won't happen overnight, and your life will not be “perfect”.  However, God can provide peace better than any yoga session, more security than the best of jobs, and more hope than the best motivational speaker! 





(P.S. YES, I bungee jumped into the NILE! It was awesome and a little bit terrifying.)