Beyond the Weekend: GOD IS...
People have a lot of thoughts about God. Some say he is angry and vengeful. Some say he is a buddy or best friend. But what does Scripture tell us about God?
Understanding the character of God matters. It changes how we meet him in our everyday lives. It changes how we understand the world around us, and his work in it. And it changes our prayer life and how we talk and hear from him. Understanding the character of God leads us to living lives of obedience and worship.
Join Pastors Aaron Buer, Jeff Manion and Brad Holmes in our 10-week series GOD IS ..., a study on the identity and character of God, and learn how your faith can grow as you know God better.
Broken Cisterns
Read: Jeremiah 2:13 Listen: Jeremiah 2
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
The people of Jerusalem quake in fear as the Babylonian army draws near. Israel’s defeat is imminent, and God sends Jeremiah to declare his judgment. God charges Israel with two crimes. They worship idols and mistreat the poor and vulnerable. The Israelites have tried to find satisfaction in life apart from God. They have turned away from the spring of living water, fresh and flowing, for broken cisterns. In ancient times, a cistern was a deep hole lined with plaster and used to store rainwater that might later be drinking water. However, a broken cistern can’t hold water. It is a useless, empty void. The people of Israel have turned their backs on God to satiate their desires with idolatry and sin. Now, they will experience the consequences.
We have all experienced a feeling of emptiness and void at some point. We often try to fill this void with things of this world. We pour money, affirmations, accolades and accomplishments into a broken “cistern,” but they are never enough. They leak out, and we are left longing and thirsty. God promises that he can satisfy our thirst. He is the source of living water. We do not have to try to fill that broken cistern with counterfeit gods that will only leak away. God will fill our void.
TODAY: Think about your patterns throughout the day. Ask God to reveal when you are most vulnerable to filling a desire with something other than him. As he reveals that desire and how you fill it, ask him to show you how he can fill it instead.
JESUS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT:
Read Jeremiah 4-5. Highlight anything that points to Jesus.
