Living water or cistern water ?

This morning, reading in Jeremiah, I came across a little verse that evoked a lot of memories for me. In this Old Testament prophecy, God was reproaching His people for forsaking Him, the source of living water. They had also “dug their own cisterns” and replaced God with other sources of refreshing, other objects of devotion, other things that they thirsted after and filled their lives with. But God was warning them, through the prophet Jeremiah, that these were cracked and broken cisterns that wouldn’t hold water and ultimately wouldn’t satisfy.

It’s easy for us to judge the Israelites for their idolatry, but I’ve been around church folks and missionaries long enough to know that there are lots of modern ways for believers to do exactly the same thing. Church friends tell me about the many hours they spend watching TV, playing computer games or hanging out with friends, and lament the fact that it’s so difficult to have a regular quiet time.

In the missionary community, it’s sometimes a little more subtle. There the idol is often work. People spend countless hours doing things for God: reaching the lost, going to Christian meetings, working with the poor and needy... They may even spend time in the Bible, but that too is “work” - preparing to lead the next group Bible study or preach the next message. Somewhere along the line, private prayer and personal time with God have got squeezed out. Spritually speaking, they are “running on empty” and in danger of burning out.

I remember one of the first times I was studying Jeremiah, back in the 1980s, being struck by the thought that cistern water was probably fresh and living water in the beginning. No one deliberately fills their cistern with old, stagnant water; it only becomes stale when it lies for a long time without being constantly refreshed. And if the cistern also happens to be cracked, it won’t be very long before it ends up empty. I remember realising that living water is a bit like the story of manna in the desert: it has to be replenished every day, because old manna won’t sustain us.

I’ve always had a passion for the Word of God and have probably filled more than fifty journals over the years, with insights and application from my quiet times alone with God. I guess I’ll never completely be able to explain why I let that journalling slip for a few years near the beginning of this millennium. Maybe because I did know and love the scriptures so much that they felt part of who I am. It was easy to be conscious of God’s presence and to reflect on a scripture while I was walking the dog or doing the ironing.

But I remember my shock, that day in 2005, when God challenged me that I was “grazing,” rather than eating solid meals. “You’re living off cistern water,” He said. I was horrified. How could someone who loved the Lord and loved the Word so much settle for cistern water? But I realised it was true. So often, in my times of reading the Bible, I was meditating on insights that God had spoken in the past, instead of discovering and writing down new words for today.

Ten years later, I look back with such thankfulness that I bought myself a new notebook and got back to my habit of drinking and writing down "fresh water" every day. It has made all the difference. My dozens of journals are an encouraging testimony to the things God has taught me over the past thirty or forty years.... but what keeps those fresh is the fact that they are daily being mixed with new and living water.