The last few years have been crazy, haven’t they? There is so much turmoil and so much stress throughout the world and it seems to only be getting worse. Everyone is trying to figure out what to do and how to do it. From bailouts, to stimulus, to taxation, to you name it! All over the world it seems that governments and every day people are dumbfounded about what is happening and how to fix the problems that face us all.
I can honestly say that I myself have been confused and in stress at times, but I have found in the Word what the problem is. We are looking to ourselves for the answer, when we need to look up! I was looking for answers in the Word about troubling times like this and I came across a couple scriptures in the book of Jeremiah that seemed to describe the exact situation that the world is facing right now. In Jeremiah 2:12-13 we read,
12 Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD. 13 For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
That went off in my spirit as I read it. And I know that the Lord spoke to me in that moment. Now I don’t mean I heard an audible voice, but I knew that the Lord was speaking to my spirit and said to me, “That is what is going on right now! The people have forsaken me and they are trying to do things for themselves.” After He spoke that word to me, I went to meditation. After some time I started to notice some details about this scenario that Jeremiah puts in front of us.
The first sin that the people committed was forsaking God, the source of living water. I think it is safe to say that we can all say that we are witnesses of that. And this is such a big issue that God told the heavens to be terrified of this event. Now that has to be a big deal! The next sin is digging their own cisterns, or wells, but these wells don’t hold any water. If a well doesn’t hold any water, what is in it…dirt! The work that the people are doing is leading to nothing! These people would rather have the dirt of their own work, than having the water that is provided by God. Now, how insane is that?! I find that to be very symbolic of what is happening right now in our world. People would rather do things their own way and if it leads to nothing, then so be it, as long as they don’t do things God’s way and receiving what He has for them.
I was reminded of two scriptures that really go along with this. The first is Proverbs 14:12:
There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
The second is when Jesus speaks with the woman at the well in John 4:10:
Jesus answered and said, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
These two scriptures both deal with issues that Jeremiah is talking about. The first is easy to spot. There are things that come to the human mind that seem so right, but end up so wrong. If we go to our own intellect then we will always come up short of the best that God has for us. Jesus on the other hand offers us living water and He says it is a gift from God. Jesus is that living water! If we put our trust in Him and if we do things the way He has set out for us, then we will always be led to God’s best.
You may say, “Well that’s so easy to say!” Yes, it is…luckily I didn’t say it. It does take a great deal of faith in the Lord to actually put that to active work in our lives, but we can do it! We can let go of all of our preconceived notions of what needs to happen and when. We need to give those things away and cast all those cares on the Lord. He is our source of EVERYTHING! It is by His grace that we woke up this morning. We have to stop looking to ourselves and choosing the dirt of our own work. We need to bring God’s way of doing things to the forefront of our minds and hearts. We need to invite Him back into every area of our lives. We have to give way to His plan and not our own. When we do things His way, then and only then will we truly never thirst, because He will give us that living water. He has put before us life and death, blessing and curses, water or dirt. He tells us what to choose. Choose life, choose blessing, choose water.