Holy Spirit of God help me drink not from fabricated cisterns, but from the fountain of your living water…

Jeremiah 2;1-13

As a child, I remember my engineer father finding a spring on our property, and cleaning it out. The water bubbled up from the ground, but even with a cup, it was difficult to pick up enough water to drink. The next step was to dig into the ground beside the spring, strategically place a rock, and then set up a pipe to allow the cool stream to run freely a few inches above the ground. Voila! A ready flowing source of delicious ‘living’ water far superior to the cloudy rain water in the cistern my Dad had created next to our house, that was full one day and stagnant or even dry the next. Spiritually, we have the same options available to us.  We can spend our time, talents and treasure ‘digging cisterns’ with societal customs and cultures, and lining them with the concrete of our own resolve, to collect the drips and drabs of all the ‘goods’ offered by the world. Or we can choose to spend our days and find ways to free the springs of the Word of God in our lives. First we must find the source – at church, through scripture, by giving and receiving mercy, in the throbbing silence of the natural world or in the ordering of chaos in our own lives as we each follow Christ Jesus.  Then we need to take time to dig down deep into the ‘ground’ around it and set up a trough - a routine of prayer-  that will keep the water flowing and accessible. Finally we need to deliberately take time to drink our fill of the delicious and life-giving water, that is the merciful presence of the Holy Spirit of God. Will I insist on building less than perfect cisterns to collect the so-called ‘goods’ of humanity, or seek out the ever flowing, ever fresh, ‘living water’ of the Spirit of God? Holy Spirit help me drink not from fabricated cisterns, but from the fountain of your living water.
                                                                                                
For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light. O continue your steadfast love to those who know you, and your salvation to the upright of heart. (Psalm 36:9,10 )
 
But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
Jesus – John 4:14
 
Soli ad gloriam
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