Verse of the week

'My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.' Jeremiah 2:13

Here's God's summary of what sin against him is. It's what we're all guilty of; all our individual 'sins' involve doing two things. We turn away from God, from listening to and obeying him, even though his words and ways are a spring of living water, showing us the best way to live now and the path that leads to eternal life. And in turning away from God, we turn to worship other 'gods', we turn to rely on other things. Instead of accepting God's living water, we dig our own cisterns, our own wells. But try as we might to fill up our lives, to bring ourselves happiness and contentment, once we've turned away from God it's like trying to fill a cracked bowl - it can't hold water.
Don't we see that in our own lives in in the lives of those around us? People desperately cast around for fulfilment, trying to fill up their lives with money, sex, drugs, pornography, instant gratification, food, alcohol...but as fast as they stuff these things into their lives, they drain away, leaving them no happier or contented than before.
That's the great lie of sin - it promises to make our lives great, to bring us enjoyment, but in the end it leaves us with nothing except a desperate attempt to fill ourselves up with more and more sin.
And yet even God's people keep doing it, keep turning from God's living water and trying to fill up our own cracked cisterns. Why not pray to the God of living water now, admitting the times when you've turned away from him and towards false gods in your life over the last week, and then come with thanks to the fountain of life, God's Son Jesus, who offers us the living water of God and gives us life, true life, God's life, to the full. Why not look at your life and identify areas where you're trying to fill up your own cracked cistern, and ask God to help you turn back to him and obedience to his Word.