When a people turn away from the Lord, they turn after vain things which don’t profit. Samuel in the closing moments of his days, he warned the children of Israel: “And turn ye not aside: for then should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain” (1 Samuel 12:21). When one’s focus on the Lord shifts, don’t expect anything good. This is what is communicated in our theme scripture. Upon leaving the Lord the fountain of living water, they carved out for themselves cisterns with holes or cracks which can’t hold any water. This lets you know that any direction without God is unfulfilling, a journey to nowhere. Satan deceives people of some gain of fulfillment but it’s superficial. Your true, enduring and real satisfaction is in God and in following His will. The Lord Jesus said, “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work” (John 4:34). God’s will was His true satisfaction. These broken cisterns are efforts to make up for what is not there of God. That is what happened to children of Israel. In turning away from God, they went into idol worship.

You can’t make up for God’s truth. Let me give you an example of worship in God’s house. Our day has witnessed the desperate parade of worldliness in the music ministry as an effort to retain young people in God’s house. These are strategies that center on fleshly excitements. This is evidence of shifted focus from God’s truth. It is a vain thing. It may excite your flesh but not God. And that means you will be empty, unsatisfied in heart. It is an adulteration of the music ministry. If the true worship of God is not there in a person or place, then another worship emerges for self and demons.

If you want to change strategies, do it within the boundaries of God’s truth. You can’t change God’s truth. Moving with the times should never mean moving away from the truth of God. Be as innovative but stay in God’s truth. Any strategies or activities that have no support of God’s truth are broken cisterns that don’t profit. If God doesn’t support that way, it’s a broken cistern.