The passage

2“Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem: “This is what the Lord says: “ ‘I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the wilderness, through a land not sown. 13“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. 29“Why do you bring charges against me? You have all rebelled against me,” declares the Lord.

Also referenced today

The shape of the message

1. Remembering first love and early devotion
2. God’s faithful history versus Israel’s ingratitude and indifference
3. Trading living water for broken cisterns
4. Misplaced trust: idols and political alliances that cannot save
5. Sin’s stain, false reformation, and the need for regeneration
6. Trouble exposing idols and God’s grief calling people back

Questions to hold while you listen

• What has changed, if anything, since the time you first loved the Lord—does prayer, devotions, or church feel like a burden now?
• Where do you see “broken cisterns” in your own life—career, relationships, material possessions, self-reliance, or something else?
• What’s the difference between outward reformation and the inward transformation described as being “born again” (John 3:7)?
• In times of trouble when you’re face to face with eternity, what do you tend to reach for first, and why?
• How does God’s question—“What have I done to cause you to turn away from me?”—challenge the way you explain your drift?

Notes

This week

Identify the “broken cisterns” you’ve been relying on and lay them at the Lord’s feet. Spend intentional time in prayer and the Word, asking God to show where you’ve strayed and to restore the joy of your first love with him.