Jeremiah 17:7–8 – “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, And whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.
Saying the words “I trust in God” is different than actually trusting Him. The time has come to trust Him with action! Trust Him as if you have deep roots that plant into the soil of the earth next to where the endless flow of life-giving water hydrates and feeds you. Don’t be afraid of the storms that rage around you or the drought that never seems to end. There is no need to be frightened by the different beasts and creeping things that may come around your trunk to drink; you might provide them shade from the heat while they do. Do not fear the hungry lion that lays wait to devour the weak and thirsty deer that pants for Living Waters. Stand up with the confidence that God controls every aspect of your life. There is nothing that He cannot handle in your life or any troubles that are too hard for Him to see you through safely. Let life’s repetition teach you the lesson of God’s consistency. God is faithful to those He calls, Son and Daughter.
Psalm 34:8–10 – Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him! Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him. The young lions lack and suffer hunger, But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.
Nature imitates God’s ways, and when the Bible uses imagery such as a tree planted by rivers of water, we can be sure that if it is in direct reference to His people, then His people can claim it for their lives as the Truth. God uses the imagery of creation in metaphor because it has not changed since the six days He said, “Let there be!” He has created the earth and all who are in it to be responsive to His good pleasure. God is not selfishly demanding that we play the jester before him or that we merely produce fruit for His table. Let’s picture a tree that lives by the light of the sun and the rain that falls from the sky, and put it in a dark, dry cave where no light shines or water drops. What response would the tree have to these conditions? There would be no other response from the tree than sure withering and death. Now visualize with me the absurd idea that the sun was conscious and took great pleasure in giving its light of life to the tree, or that the rain was also conscious and delighted in the tree’s grateful response to getting the very thing it needs the most to live. Do you not see the right relationship that’s pictured here? Trees are not made to be in constant darkness or to be without water. Neither are human beings created to be without the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Without God, we will wither and die eventually in every conceivable way. When a person does not respond to God’s plan of salvation in the right way, there is a separation from the Living Waters of Life and no hope of living on the dry ground where there is no sustenance. God’s pleasure resides in the thankful responses of those lives dependent upon Him. Thank you, Lord, for all you are in me and through me!
When God says something is good, it is good. When He says He loves you, He loves you. His love for you doesn’t fall dead to the ground and disappear like the leaves of each season of your life. He is concerned with your roots all year long. Where is your heart rooted and grounded? When a person is rooted in God’s love, there is no way they can be moved any more than a tree planted by rivers of water can uproot itself and walk to another place in the forest. The thing to remember here is that what keeps a tree grounded, is the ground. What keeps us grounded is Christ Jesus. The moment we think that anything we do in life helps us is the time that God will remind us through the trials of our faith that even though our flesh and heart fail God is the strength of our hearts and our portion forever (Psalm 73:26).
