Broken Cisterns

There’s a whole in my bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza, there’s a whole in my bucket dear Liza a whole!

Believe it or not in high school I used to take a pottery class. In this class we learned how to make figurines (I made Star wars figurines), cups (I made a star wars cup), we also learned how to make vases (I didn’t know how to make a Star Wars vase or else I would have).

After rolling clay into foot long “snake” sections I would then carefully place each rolled up piece of clay on top of another in a circle until it looked similar to a vase. The real test of the vase was whether or not it did what it was suppose to do…hold water! I have to say I am pretty proud of myself because my vase did hold water, but others in the class were pretty upset that instead of having a dry table to work on they were now mopping up water that had leaked out of their vases.

Vases and Cisterns are similar; they are both designed to hold water; that is their function and their job. If one cracks and it can no longer hold water, it has failed what its designer intended it for. God makes a powerful point about this very thing in Jeremiah 2:13, He says, 'For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns — broken cisterns that can hold no water. (NKJV)

Sometimes it seems like it just might work to live life without God. But the truth that hit’s me every time I try (even for just a day) to live a “Christian life” my way is that I can no longer hold the Living Water. I don’t function like I am suppose to, my speech and actions do not come from a heart filled with God, but rather all I have to draw from is emptiness.

Paul says that we should not have confidence in what the flesh can do, and if ever someone could boast about his accomplishments in the flesh it was Paul, look for yourself in Philippians 3:3. No matter how skilled and talented we are, no matter how hard we try, when we try to do this “God thing” on our own we make ourselves into broken cisterns that cannot hold inside the Living Water.

Don’t be fooled by the Liar of this generation…the only person who can form you into the vessel that accomplishes what it was designed to do, is the same God who formed us in the womb, who knew us before we were born. Our God makes us perfectly, without cracks, to do what we were formed to do…hold Living Water!

If you have found yourself broken this week, it may be time for you to have a little talk with God. The amazing part about getting right with God is that we don’t have to try to mend ourselves all we have to do is desire to have the Living Water flow into our lives, and our God makes sure that we can hold Him in.