The Real Thing
Jesus will always tell you the truth and give you the genuine.
“My people have . . forsaken Me, the living water, and have dug broken cisterns.”
Jeremiah 2:13 NIV.
They are available at a reduced price, but they are no bargain – fake Rolex watches, fake Gucci purses, and fake designer sunglasses. Putting a well known name on a counterfeit product does not make it worth more. A fake product will always look good, almost as good as the real thing, but remains what it is, a cheap substitute for the real thing. How foolish to sacrifice something you have that is real for something that you want but is counterfeit. Yet people do that all the time.
The Old Testament prophet, Jeremiah, wept as he wrote God’s words to Israel, “My people. . have forsaken Me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” Jeremiah 2:13 NIV. How foolish and tragic! Individuals who knew better tried to replace God in their personal and national lives, giving away the irreplaceable for the undesirable. That still happens today. A cheap substitute is never worth what you gave up to get it.
The Bible gives another more personal example. Esau, son of Isaac and Rebekah and twin brother of Jacob, “who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright . . afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.” Hebrews 12:16-17. Read Esau’s story in Genesis 25:29-34. In impatience, Esau gave away what was valuable and irreplaceable just to satisfy his appetite.
Tragically, people do that every day. People miss an unrepeatable opportunity because they chose to do something more immediately pressing. People fail to value what they have until squandering it away for something else of far less worth. A foolish person will casually trade an irreplaceable history with a spouse of many years for someone more thrilling at the moment. A person will trade their good name for some foolish whim. People often trade a sure thing for what is a risky and remote possibility. More tragically, people will sell a certain eternity for a momentary pleasure. Cheap substitutes are never worth what they cost you.
A lesson for life is: never settle for second best; learn that you get what you pay for. There are few bargains in life, not nearly as many as advertised or promised. Anything that comes too cheaply or quickly is not worth as much as was claimed. Jesus will always tell you the truth and offer you the genuine. He cannot do otherwise. “Whoever drinks of the water that I give shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give shall be in you a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” John 4:14 NKJV. Allow no substitute; accept nothing less than Jesus in all His fullness.
My prayer for you today is that you recognize what is real and settle for nothing less.