Broken Cisterns

"What does not satisfy when we find it, was not the thing we were desiring." 
-C. S. Lewis


"If only you had this or that," the world lies to us, "then you would be happy." How come then, once we do achieve whatever goal we have set for ourselves, or attain whatever possession or relationship we were chasing after, that the satisfaction from it never lasts for long? We are always left wanting more.


Maybe the reason is because we thought we knew what we wanted, but actually we were way off target. Maybe what we really were desiring was fulfillment, and we thought we knew where we could find it--money, success, popularity, approval from others, a relationship, status, whatever else it may be. However, we were going to the wrong places to find this fulfillment. We thought things and people in this world could satisfy us, but in reality, these things do not have the power to fulfill us. God and God alone can give us complete satisfaction in Him.


Psalm 16:2 [NIV 2011]: "I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing."


In the book of Jeremiah, the people go after all sorts of other things, rather than following God. They have deserted God to chase after things that do not fulfill. It's a painful realization to see how often I can be like these people... I try to fill myself up with things that (intellectually) I know do not satisfy.


Jeremiah 2:13 [NIV]: "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."


I did a little online research to find out what a cistern actually was, and here's what I found...


Cistern definition: "a receptacle for water, either conducted from an external spring or proceeding from rain-fall."


From John Wesley: "Verse 13 -- Of living waters - A metaphor taken from springs, called living, because they never cease, or intermit; such had God's care and kindness been over them. Cisterns - Either their idols, which are empty vain things, that never answer expectation, or the Assyrians, and Egyptians. Indeed all other supports, that are trusted to besides God, are but broken vessels."


In short, the people had forsaken God, and pursued idols. Just a few thoughts on idols from Jeremiah...


Jeremiah 2:5 [NLT]: "This is what the Lord says: "What did your ancestors find wrong with me that led them to stray so far from me? They worshiped worthless idols, only to become worthless themselves.""


Jeremiah 10:5 [NLT]: "Their gods are like helpless scarecrows in a cucumber field! They cannot speak, and they need to be carried because they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of such gods, for they can neither harm you nor do you any good."


Jeremiah 10:8 [Amplified Bible]: But they are altogether irrational and stupid and foolish. Their instruction is given by idols who are but wood [it is a teaching of falsity, emptiness, futility]!


Jeremiah 10:15 [NLT]: "Idols are worthless; they are ridiculous lies! On the day of reckoning they will all be destroyed."


"Idols always break the hearts of their worshipers."
-C. S. Lewis

Well said... If you are giving your life to something that cannot save, you are bound to be let down.

I am so thankful for the way God pursues me so persistently; even when I mess up, He loves me still the same. I am so thankful for his unending mercies, so thankful for how His love never fails.


Psalm 116:5 [NIV 2011]: "The LORD is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion."


Lamentations 3:22-23 [NLT]: "The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each morning."

Beautiful Ending

“Beautiful Ending” by BarlowGirl 


"Oh, tragedy,
Has taken so many.
Love lost 'cause they all
Forgot who You were.
And it scares me to think
That I would choose
My life over You.
Oh, my selfish heart
Divides me from You,
It tears us apart.


So tell me,
What is our ending?
Will it be beautiful,
So beautiful?


Oh, why do I
Let myself let go
Of Hands that painted the stars
And hold tears that fall?
And the pride of my heart
Makes me forget
It's not me but You
Who makes the heart beat.
I'm lost without You
And dying from me


So tell me,
What is our ending?
Will it be beautiful,
So beautiful?


Will my life
Find me by Your side?
Your love is beautiful,
So beautiful


At the end of it all,
I wanna be in Your arms.
At the end of it all,
I wanna be in Your arms.
At the end of it all,
I wanna be in Your arms.
At the end of it all,
I wanna be in Your arms.


So tell me,
What is our ending?
Will it be beautiful,
So beautiful?
Will my life
Find me by Your side?
'Cause Your love is beautiful,
So beautiful"

BarlowGirl's reason for writing this song goes along so well with what I’ve been reading lately, 2 Chronicles. This scenario seems to play out again and again—the leaders and kings of Judah seem to be so on track with following the Lord, He has blessed them with great ministries… but then, something happens and they turn away. They become distracted. Something else seems to become greater than God. Here is the story that sticks out to me the most right now.

King Asa’s Story:

Chapters 14 to 16 of Second Chronicles talk about King Asa’s reign in Judah. 2 Chronicles 14:2 says, “And Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God.” He “commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, and to keep the law and the commandment” (14:4).

King of Judah, Asa, and his army of 300,000 men are about to fight the Ethiopians’ army of a million men (14:9). “And Asa cried to the Lord his God, “O Lord, there is none like you to help, between the mighty and the weak. Help us, O Lord our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this multitude. O Lord, you are our God; let not man prevail against you" (14:11). And the Lord gave victory to Judah.

“And all Judah rejoiced over the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart and had sought Him with their whole desire, and He was found by them, and the Lord gave them rest all around (15:15). King Asa must have hated sin and idolatry because he destroyed an idolatrous image that his own mother had (15:16). 2 Chronicles 15:17 says “The heart of Asa was wholly true all his days.” For the first 35 years of his ruling as King of Judah, Asa had followed the Lord.

The 36^th year is where Asa falls into trouble. “But in the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign, Baasha king of Israel attacked. He started it by building a fort at Ramah and closing the border between Israel and Judah to keep Asa king of Judah from leaving or entering” (16:1 [The Message]). Instead of crying out to the Lord for help, he took matters into his own hands. He sent gold and silver from The Temple of God to send to Ben-hadad, king of Syria to make a treaty with him.

2 Chronicles 16:7-9 of The Message says, "Just after that, Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said, "Because you went for help to the king of Aram and didn't ask God for help, you've lost a victory over the army of the king of Aram. Didn't the Ethiopians and Libyans come against you with superior forces, completely outclassing you with their chariots and cavalry? But you asked God for help and he gave you the victory. God is always on the alert, constantly on the lookout for people who are totally committed to him. You were foolish to go for human help when you could have had God's help. Now you're in trouble—one round of war after another."" King Asa had forgotten what the Lord had done for him in the past. He had forgotten how the Lord had delivered him.

And what was Asa’s response to this rebuke? Asa’s heart hardened toward the Lord. He threw the seer in prison and was cruel to some of the people (16:10). In the 39^th year of his reign, King Asa got a terrible foot disease. “Yet even in his disease he did not seek the Lord, but sought help from physicians” (16:12). King Asa, who had started out following the Lord so strongly in the beginning, lost sight of who God is, how BIG He is, how He alone is able to SAVE.

How easily I can forget who God is and how much He loves me. How easily my focus shifts from the Lord and onto myself.

How essential it is to trust in God’s character and His promises. God's character doesn't change with our circumstances. No matter what I am facing or how I am feeling, His love remains.


"Though our feelings come and go, God's love for us does not." -- C.S. Lewis


Romans 8:37-39: "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Made For More

In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis says, "If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."

We were made for more than this world in its broken, sinful state. We were made to be in perfect relationship with God, our creator. As humans, we ruined this relationship because we chose to sin. But God loved us so much that He sent His only son to die in our place. Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." He paid the price we could not pay. His love for us is SO BIG!


I really like the C.S. Lewis Song by Brooke Fraser, and the truth it speaks... Especially the Bridge.

C.S. Lewis Song, by Brooke Fraser

"If I find in myself desires nothing in this world can satisfy,
I can only conclude that I was not made for here
If the flesh that I fight is at best only light and momentary,
then of course I'll feel nude when to where I'm destined I'm compared

[CHORUS]
Speak to me in the light of the dawn
Mercy comes with the morning
I will sigh and with all creation groan as I wait for hope to come for me

Am I lost or just less found? On the straight or on the roundabout of the wrong way?
Is this a soul that stirs in me, is it breaking free, wanting to come alive?
'Cause my comfort would prefer for me to be numb
And avoid the impending birth of who I was born to become

[CHORUS]

[BRIDGE]
For we, we are not long here
Our time is but a breath, so we better breathe it
And I, I was made to live, I was made to love, I was made to know you
Hope is coming for me
Hope, He's coming"

Where am I looking?

"Look for yourself and you will find loneliness and despair. But look for Christ and you will find Him and everything else."
--C. S. Lewis

LOVE.

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.”

— C.S. Lewis