It is gently raining this morning and I am sitting on my back deck watching it fall. It has been a hot summer and the first half of it has been very dry.
Rain. Water. Without it there is no growth or life.
The last few weeks the rain has come. The burn ban is lifted. Everything is green again. And we are reminded of the importance of this life-giving water.
In my last few blogs I have been talking about stewardship – maybe not your typical reflections – but thoughts that get us thinking about who owns it all, and how we respond to that truth. God our Father is our Source of Life. Jesus says He is the fountain of living water, and when we drink from Him we will never thirst again. (See the book of John.) As stewards – managers of the resources God has given – we believe and know He is the Source of Life and everything on the earth belongs to Him.
There is a problem, however. As it was in the times of ancient Israel, so it is with us today. Like God spoke in the Old Testament, He speaks to us today.
“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
We have dug cisterns that don’t hold water.
A cistern is a large receptacle for holding water, often catching rain water when it falls. To be useful a cistern must be waterproof, in a catchment area where rain falls, and readily accessible so the water can be used. Cisterns were often cut out of rock and lined with plaster so water would not easily escape. A leaky cistern was, and is, of no use.
What does it mean?
In Jeremiah 2, God points out that Israel has trusted other ways, and other gods, and in the process rejected Him. He goes further to say that they have gone back to Egypt and Assyria to drink water from the Nile and the Euphrates River. The symbolism here cannot be mistaken. Egypt and Assyria represent the places of their enslavement and later their deliverance. God says clearly that they have forsaken Him, His ways, and His freedom in exchange for going back to the places that enslaved them. In other words, they have forsaken the Source, and built cisterns that don’t hold water.
So how does this apply to me?
I need to ask the question of myself. Am I forsaking the Source, and building cisterns that don’t hold the living water of Christ? Am I trusting in Egypt – the world around me – and trying to find my life, my peace, my contentment in the money, possessions, and “promises” that bring immediate, but not lifelong, eternal-life fulfillment. Am I building with materials that will break down and decay and quickly lose the ability to hold what matters most?
In my role as steward, I want to live a life worthy of God’s calling; one that is receiving, holding, and pouring out the love of God to others who are so desperately thirsty.
This is how I want to build my cistern – one that holds what matters – so I commit to this:
As a steward I will feed off the Source of Life every day through worship and intimate relationship with Abba Father.
As a steward I will build a cistern – a foundation for life – established on the principles, character, ways and Word of God. It’s a cistern that God will strengthen me to build that holds the Fountain of Living Water. I understand as the Psalmist wrote, that except the Lord build the house, I will labour in vain. (See Psalm 127)
As a steward I will trust God above all else.
As a steward I will love God with everything I am, then attempt to love others in the same way.
As a steward I will humble myself daily knowing my propensity to fail, yet trusting God’s goodness to correct my path.
As a steward I will remind myself that stewardship is discipleship – a daily exercise of taking up those hard things that I don’t want to surrender, and follow Him regardless.
As a steward I will remember that I am on a journey, with many ups and downs, high points and pitfalls. It is a journey where I learn to surrender my life, trust Him daily, and build on the foundation rock of Jesus.
As a steward I will do my best not to live in shame, but rather live in the hope of His amazing grace, forgiveness, love and acceptance, even when I make mistakes.
This is how I want to live. Free and alive with Jesus as my King.
Stewardship is cistern building at its best. God gives me the plans every day, and He will also give them to you. He supplies the building materials, and gives us the Living Water that fills the cistern.
It is as easy, and as hard, as all that.