Thirsty?

Have you ever been thirsty, really thirsty? 

The desires in our souls are often compared to thirst.  When you are thirsty, the desire for water can override everything else.

We pursue money, sex, entertainment and a thousand other desires like our lives depend on it. Driven by an overpowering thirst, our lives are poured out in a passionate pursuit.

God saw this happening with the ancient people of Israel and said: 

“My people have done two evil things:

They have abandoned me—

the fountain of living water.

And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns

that can hold no water at all!” (Jeremiah 2:13, NLT)

Here in this passage God is using a metaphor.  He is comparing the thirst of the soul to the thirst for water.  Our souls hunger and thirst for God.  Without God we are parched and thirsty on the inside.  God says here that He is the fountain of living water.  There are two evil things God addresses.  The first is that His people have abandoned Him.  The second is that they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns.  The cracked cisterns are a metaphor for things that we pursue to satisfy our thirst.  A cistern stores water so that when the spring rains are finished and the dry months of summer come people do not die for lack of water. We are dying for lack of "living water", because money, sex, entertainment and all our other pursuits can never satisfy out souls.