Dried up Fountains
I grew up on a gold mine in South Africa, with the yellow “mine dumps” outlined against the sky. The “dumps” were made up of the sand left after the processing of ore to extract the gold. Since cyanide was used in the gold extraction, the rain run-off into the lake below our “dump” (we called them dams) made the water decidedly undrinkable.
So, while we used the lake for canoeing and general relaxation (there was a trailer park along its shores), drinking its water was definitely not an option. No fish in those waters either.
We had two choices: either to drink the purified water provided by the town, or foolishly try to survive on the polluted lake water.
Spiritually speaking, we also have two choices: We can either try to find satisfaction with man-made solutions to life’s mysteries, or go to the very source of life itself – God.
People in Jeremiah’s day had the same to choices, and the made the wrong choice; they turned away from the only One Who could fulfil their every longing and took refuge in their own efforts.
“For My people have committed two evils:
They have forsaken Me,
The fountain of living waters,
To hew for themselves cisterns,
Broken cisterns
That can hold no water. (Jeremiah 2:13 – NASB)
You and I may not have dug any leaky cisterns today, but many of us have left God out of our lives. We think we can make it on our own. We imagine if we made more money, got a better job, became more successful, or pursued a life of fam – we would be able to fill that deep emptiness within us.
So what if we gained all those things? We would still be like a broken fountain that is unable to satisfy our thirst.
Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14 – NASB)
Fountain of Living Waters
(© 9th September 2015 – by Christopher Shennan)
Many try to fill their longings;
Their hunger for peace and true joy,
With the things that earth has fashioned,
And the arts the most men employ.
But the truth, quite plain and simple,
Is that nothing can fill the void
That sin has created in us,
But what Christ on the Cross employed.
He alone can fill your longings,
And bring the peace that will not end;
He alone has endless measures,
That your poor, broken heart, will mend.
Christ is the Fountain of Waters;
Living, and abundant, and free.
Christ fulfilled all of my longings –
He did it by dying for me.
Please visit My website: www.christophershennan.ca
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Picture by Joanne Shennan – Used with permission)
Gems of Discovery - Nuggets of Truth 