holding broken cisterns

During an especially dark season in my life, an image continued to flash through my mind. I was holding a giant clay cistern full of water. But there was a small leak, and the water started to pour out. And just as I got my hand in the correct spot, stopping the flow, another leak appeared. And so I would quickly move my hand to stop that leak...and then another leak would erupt. Panicked, afraid, and exhausted, it became clear: What I was holding was too much. What I thought was my responsibility, was not. What I declared was mine to handle, was mine to hand over. My cistern was broken. It could hold no water. And no amount of striving, white knuckling, or will power was ever going to change this.

"They have dug themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that hold no water." (Jer 2:13)

We do this, don't we? We dig our own broken cisterns and hold tight to them, thinking, "I've got this!", believing the lie that at the end of the day, it really is all up to me. And yet, it doesn't work, does it?

It was not until I traded in my broken cistern for the true fountain of life, that this recurring image left me; when I gave up my self-reliance for relying on God, that the water would finally hold.

And so I thought it might be a good question to throw out there today, in case you are in a season much like the one I was in; when there is just too much you believe you are being asked to manage- a season where the enemy has you convinced that you are the one called to hold it all together....ask yourself...have I dug myself a broken cistern? And then hand it over.

Because it is not all up to you, dear friend. It never was and never will be. Drop your cistern and run to the source of living waters.