Reading through the books of Chronicles shows us a cycle of war and peace that can be quite disheartening. The people of God did not always seek God and were led by some good kings and some bad kings, all of which had a profound influence on what happened to them. In the middle of 2 Chronicles, we read about Asa, a king who served God wholeheartedly and as a result ‘the kingdom was at peace under him.’ (2 Chron 14:5-6)

The pathway to peace under Asa had three characteristics which also apply to us.

1. Seek God wholeheartedly. The people in desperation had cried out to the Lord. (2 Chron 13:14) Asa sought God wholeheartedly and endeavoured to do what was right. (2 Chron 14:4,7). Asa was reminded, ‘If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.’ (2 Chron 15:2) The people followed his example: ‘They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, with all their heart and soul.‘ (2 Chron 15:12) Jeremiah reminds us also of this principle (Jer 29:13). There is no substitute for seeking God wholeheartedly – something which takes time and effort.

2. Obey God fully. Obedience is always what God wants from His people. ‘He commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and to obey his laws and commands.‘ (2 Chron 14:4) There is no substitute for doing what God says. (James 1:22)

3. Rely on God totally. We are told, ‘The men of Judah were victorious because they relied on the Lord, the God of their ancestors.’ (2 Chron 13:18, see also 2 Chron 14:11) It’s so easy to come up with our own plans and solutions, but God is looking for dependent people (see Prov 3:5-6). Peace comes when we do not lean on our own understanding or look to ourselves or others for solutions, but trust in God.

(Thanks to Nicky Gumbel for this thoughts on these passages which sparked this post.)

We live in a consumer society in the UK. Retailers are told, ‘The customer is always right’. This may well be good customer relations, but it also breeds within us an expectation that others are only there to meet our needs and satisfy our demands. .

This is a dangerous attittude to bring to church life, where God expects each one of us to contribute and not simply consume. Paul said, ‘When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation.’ (1 Cor 14:12) He says, ‘be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, humns and songs from the Spirit.’ (Eph 5:18-19) In another letter, he says, ‘Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.’ (Col 3:16) The benefits of this contributor mentality are made explicit: ‘so that the church may be built up.’ (1 Cor 14:21)

Let’s be contributors, not simply consumers: people who participate and build each other up, for our gifts and talents are all necessary and can be used by God for the edification of the church.

The first step to drawing water from the wells of salvation (Is 12:3) is to admit that we are thirsty. Getting water from a well wasn’t an easy task, so if you weren’t thirsty, you just wouldn’t bother. So often, we find it hard to admit to spiritual thirst. Pride makes us unwilling to admit to anyone that we are not excited by God anymore or don’t feel His presence as closely as we used to. We don’t want to appear too fanatical about God. We are so used to ‘making do’ with religion that we forget God wants us to be in an intimate relationship with Him.

The psalmists were not afraid to admit their thirst for God.

‘You, God, are my God,
    earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
    my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
    where there is no water.’ (Ps 63:1)

‘As the deer pants for streams of water,
    so my soul pants for you, my God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
    When can I go and meet with God?’ (Ps 42:1-2)

‘I thirst for you like a parched land.’ (Ps 143:6)

Jesus said, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.’ (Jn 7:37) We will only drink and have our thirst quenched if we admit we are thirsty and come to Jesus.

In our new series tonight (‘The Wells of Salvation’), we looked at Isaiah 12:3 which tells us ‘with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.’ Joy is promised to us by Jesus (see John 15:11) and is the source of strength in God (Neh 8:10), but so often, we struggle because we don’t like to admit our spiritual thirst and we don’t like to admit that God’s ways are the only ways we can know true and lasting satisfaction. Jeremiah pinpointed the problem when he prophesied, ‘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.’ (Jer 2:13)

God is the source of living water (Jer 17:13). Water is essential to life, but the question remains whether we draw water from wells or from cisterns. In Israel at the time Isaiah and Jeremiah were writing, there were four main sources of water for settlements. There was obviously fresh surface water (the Sea of Galilee, for example) and there were springs and wells as well as cisterns which were used to collect rain so that the water could be used in dry periods. Springs and wells tap into the same source of water, but springs are natural, and wells are dug by people from the surface. Rain could be collected in cisterns, which were at that time large holes dug into the ground, usually in bedrock, but they differed from wells in that they could only hold captured rainwater. They were, in effect, like a storage tank, a bit like a reservoir. A well actually tapped into an underground water source; it had access to living water.[1]

We need to be drawing water from a well of water which has access to life-giving rivers instead of simply dipping into a storage container which can easily leak and which has finite resources. Eventually, we will reach the end of our resources, the end of the satisfaction that worldly things can bring. That may well take a long time: there is much pleasure to be found in the world and we can live for many years in contentment, thinking we have found all we need in family, friends, homes, material possessions, successful careers and so on. But one day we will find that even if we have everything we have always believed was vital to a successful life, we feel lifeless and restless. The cistern will have run dry.

It’s tempting at this point to simply dig another cistern: to find another job, to swap partners, to buy more stuff, to move house. But God wants us to learn that satisfaction ultimately comes from Him and not from these other things. There is an abundance in God which satisfies all our needs and all our desires (see Ps 87:7, Song of Songs 4:15) There is no problem with supply; the wells of salvation will never run dry. We simply need, as Casting Crowns sing, to come to the well. (‘The Well’, Casting Crowns)

[1] http://funjoelsisrael.com/2010/09/what-is-a-cistern/

We had a belated birthday to celebrate tonight.

‘Blind Date’ was a UK TV series hosted by Cilla Black which aimed to match up couples without them actually seeing each other. It’s much harder to do anything without the benefit of sight, and the story of the healing of a blind man (Mark 8:22-26) raises some interesting questions.

This healing took place in Bethsaida, which was near to Jesus’s home town of Nazarath. He was essentially in home territory – was that a help or a hindrance?! This incident took place just after the feeding of the four thousand, when Jesus was clearly moving in the power of the Holy Spirit. Yet He took this man by the hand and led him out of the town before spitting on him and rubbnig his eyes! His methods were certainly not those recommended by any optician and this miracle is unusual in that the man could not see clearly straightaway, saying initially he could only see men walking like trees. (Mk 8:24) Full sight was restored only when Jesus laid hands on him again. (Mk 8:25)

We may have many questions about why this healing did not take place immediately. Was it due to a lack of faith? Was Jesus simply having an ‘off day’? The more plausible explanation is that Jesus was reminding us that even when there is faith, the power of God is present and we are in the right place, sometimes there are delays. Miracles occur through God’s power and in God’s time. We may well need to persevere in prayer before we see the miracles we long to see.

Sometimes, blindness is spiritual and not physical. We may well be seeking God for guidance and direction and feel that He is strangely silent. At such times, we need to learn the lessons of perseverance. (Luke 18:1) Restoration comes, but in God’s timing and in God’s way.