It has become a common trend for the human race around the whole world to have alternatives for the probability of failure in our initial plans. While this may be a good practice and probably being; "realistic", it certainly does not do us any good when it comes to our walk with Christ Jesus. Jesus does not do half jobs that are insufficient to meeting our needs, but instead; all that is created by Him for our benefit is able to thoroughly meet our needs. Manufactured alternatives will always fall short of the satisfaction that comes from the original thing that God has created for us. For us to embrace this truth, we need to be willing to let go of our alternatives. In the book of Jeremiah 2:13; God spells out two sins that they have committed: "My people have done two evil things; they have forsaken me the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all". This was during a time when the Israelites had totally forgotten about God and were worshipping Baals. As a result of this, God sent Jeremiah to announce the 70 year Babylonian rule over Israel. What makes it worse is that they do not think that they are at fault in any way. We see this in Jer 2:35" ... I am innocent; surely His anger has turned away from me ...". So, according to them; there is no fault in having a "plan B" if the initial one does not seem to work out. Are we not like this with God sometimes?
Let us go deeper into this scripture in Jer.2:13. for us to understand this scripture, we need to understand the difference between a fountain and a cistern. A fountain is a natural spring of water from the ground whilst a cistern; is a man-made tack used to preserve rain water. Now, there is nothing wrong with having a cistern, but there is something wrong with making a cistern your main source of water(life) when there is a fountain available for use. This is exactly what the Israelites had done. The problem with a cistern is that it can break or crack, which was the case in this instance. I bet they tried everything in their power to try and fix this cistern and for some time got it right, but because water is an inevitably unstoppable force; they would find themselves trying to fix it again. Just like how we forget God and when life is not going well for us, we try and fix it with our own strength; we sometimes get it right and for a while life seems good. But because life's troubles are inevitable(John16:33), we find our cisterns leaking again and this become a vicious cycle; simply because we will not let go of our unhelpful "self-sufficient" mentality. I imagine the Israelites blaming the cistern's inability to hold water on everything else but themselves. Much like us human beings, we forsake God (the fountain) and we make our own plans (cisterns) and when they fail us, we blame it on everything and everyone else but ourselves. All they had to do was to forget about the cisterns and embrace the fountain of living water, which will never run dry. We need to rely on God fully for us to enjoy the pleasures that are at his right hand. God provides the fountain and all we have to do is "feast on the abundance of his house and drink from his river of delights" Psalm 36:8.
As i read through the bible, I realize that God has a soft spot for people who admit their faults. I personally hate it (and I bet you hate it too) when someone trys to put me at fault for something that they did wrong. You know when someone says:"yeah I did it, but I would not have done it if hadn't done ..." or "I did that because you didn't ...". Those are some of the worst apologies that we hear from people these days. I guess that is why we even struggle with repentance, we just cannot see ourselves at fault. In the bible we see that God loves it when we admit our faults and ask for forgiveness. David understood this hence he said "a broken and CONTRITE heart you do not despise" in Psalm 51. In John 9;after Jesus healed a man who had been blind from birth. The pharisees did not believe it and even through the man out of the synagogue for believing in that Jesus was the Messiah. after the man accepts him as the Messiah and worships him, Jesus says these words: "For judgement I have come to this world so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind" to what the pharisees replied "what, are we blind too?" to which he replied "if you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin, but now that you CLAIM that you see, your guilt remains" This suggests to me that, if the pharisees had admitted their spiritual blindness, they would not be guilty of any sin. So, the first step of moving out of your self-sufficent state to total dependance in God, is by admitting that you have dug your own cisterns and forsaken the fountain of living water.
join me again in the next post as we look at other instance in the bible on this vital matter.
God bless you all and thank you for reading!!!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment