Jesus Wants to Fix Your Brokeness

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“For years you have come into My house and gathered in My name to worship many things other than Me.”

Does this phrase shake you as it has shaken me over the past month?

It is a phrase God put in my heart as I followed Christian news, reading about one Christian leader after another being exposed in sin.

To be sure, this idolatry amongst Christians isn’t limited to Christian celebrityism.

We spend our lives worshiping many things: from luxury and money to food and health.

Why is man so prone to idolatry?

We were created to worship God. God places inside every human person a drive to worship Him.

However, our fallen nature distorts and defiles this desire.

We see this distortion in ancient history, when from the beginning of time man-made idols out of wood and stone and worshipped nature.

This failure to worship God and God alone leaves an emptiness inside of us that we attempt to fill, but never seem to succeed at keeping filled.

We have forsaken God

When we think of forsaking God, perhaps we envision those who have backslidden or deconstructed.

We think of those who have defamed God’s name and blasphemed Him.

Yet, how often have we done this in our own lives?

How often have we gazed at the face of our favorite Bible teacher, TV preacher, or worship singer more than we opened our Bibles?

I often wonder how spiritual we would be if we lived in a country where we had no access to Christian teaching.

If all we had were a few precious pages of the Bible as our only source of God’s Word.

I would dare to say we’d be 100 times more spiritual than we are today because we would have the only source of spiritual nourishment we need.

“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12

We have turned our backs on the fountain of living waters

This verse in Jeremiah always reminds me of Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at the well.

She was physically thirsty, but more than that, she had an emptiness in her soul that she had not been able to fill.

She had tried to fill it with human love, and blown through 4 marriages. Now she was living with a man in an adulterous relationship.

Her human attempts to fill a supernatural emptiness had driven her to guilt and shame.

And now she sat next to Jesus – the fountain of living waters – and He was offering her eternal satisfaction.

We are all like that Samaritan woman.

Maybe we haven’t blown through multiple marriages trying to find that feeling of satisfaction.

Maybe our shame is out in the open for all to see.

Maybe we are trying to fill that emptiness with wine, pornography, or prescription drugs.

Perhaps we’ve turned to food, shopping, or gambling.

Some try to fill that emptiness with work, friends, or travel and experiences.

And we all end up just like that Samaritan woman: empty and disillusioned sitting right next to the source of eternal satisfaction.

Broken cisterns are all we have left

Jeremiah is painting a picture of man’s futile attempt at creating what God has already provided.

The Hebrew word for fountain in this verse means a well or wellspring.

A well is an endless supply of water, it doesn’t need to be refilled because it is a continual source of water.

The people of Judah had turned their backs on this well of living water and carved out for themselves cisterns.

The difference between a well and a cistern is that a well taps into an existing water source while a cistern stores water.

A cistern has to be filled and kept filled, but unlike a well, the water in the cistern can grow stagnant.

But Jeremiah goes on to say “…broken cisterns that can hold no water.”

Their cisterns were not only an inferior source of satiation, they were broken and could hold no water.

They could not even fulfill their given purpose.

Is your heart a broken, purposeless cistern?

Maybe you’re like that Samaritan woman at the well: Your life is broken and you feel shame, disillusionment, emptiness, and sorrow.

You don’t know what to do, so you just keep doing what you’ve always done.

Jesus is sitting next to you right now and He’s offering you an endless source of satisfaction, comfort, and joy.

Are you willing to trade your broken cistern that holds no water for His endless well?

There are two ways Jesus wants to fix your brokenness.

1. Discover who He is

We will never fully connect to our purpose if we don’t know who the source of our purpose is. And there is only one way to know Christ.

Reading the Bible. Studying the Bible. Meditating on the Bible.

Jesus said, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:31-32

His Word has to become the place where we dwell, because He is that Word, and He is the source of all truth….truth that will lead us to freedom!

2. Discover who we are in Him

There is tremendous power in discovering our identity.

A lot of people today are lost, trying to discover who they are and they think the answer lies in DNA testing, researching their ancestry, and reconnecting with their roots.

The problem is, as children of God, that is not who we are.

When we are born again, we get a new DNA.

We get a new heritage and a new citizenship. The Bible says that we are born again, born of the Spirit.

And when we discover who we are in Christ, we find our real purpose.

We can walk away from our leaky wells and connect with the source of living water. And here’s the great secret!

When we connect with the source of living water and discover our purpose in being a pipe, not a well, we will realize that we are never empty.

Instead of trying to fill up a leaky well with

• Body image
• Affirmations
• A better standard of living
• A better job
• A new husband
• A new home
• Spa days
• Food
• Wine
• Friends….

We will find we’re always satisfied with the living water of God’s presence and purpose in our lives.

That living water will be endlessly flowing through us — and not just to satisfy us, but to satisfy others as well.

When the woman at the well connected to Jesus’ living water, she was instantly changed in that moment.

But she didn’t just sit there drowning herself in His living water.

She instantly realized her purpose was to deliver that water and ran out and grabbed other people to share that living water.

Jesus is the Living Water who will satisfy the deepest longing in our soul and spirit.

And when we’re filled with Christ as our Bread of Life and Living water, we will never hunger or thirst again!