Devotionals

Finding Satisfaction

by Susan Barnes 
03/29/17
Free to Share
Author requests article critique

  Message Writer
  Hire Writer

Tweet

“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 2:13

The Bible often refers to our needs as thirsts, for example, when Jesus is talking to the woman at the well he says, “… whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst” (John 4:14). We live in a world that so often claims to meet our needs and provide satisfaction, yet in reality it provides no more than a "broken cistern" (a cistern is a tank for holding water). People today are seeking satisfaction, often with little regard for the consequences. They seek it through money, power, sex, prestige, possessions, alcohol, drugs, but they are all "broken cisterns".

However, this verse is addressed to “my people”—God's people. How do we as Christians dig our own cisterns? When we attempt to live the Christian life in our own strength. When we try to find a thrill in some experience, rather than in Christ, or when we insist on our own way, without trusting God and his ways. We fail to humble ourselves, and we seek to meet our needs through our own efforts.

Jesus said, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink" (John 7:37). First we have to acknowledge our thirst, our need. Then we come in prayer to the only one who can give us lasting satisfaction.

Like the old hymn says, "I have tried the broken cistern, Lord, but, ah, the waters failed! … Now none but Christ can satisfy" (Frances Bevan).