A Tree Planted by the Living Water

9/9/2022

As I was reading through God's Word using the Sweeter Than Honey Bible reading plan this summer, on July 29, I came across this passage in Jeremiah. Chapters 16-18 of the book of Jeremiah talk about a tree planted by the water and how it flourishes.

I don't know about you, but I love the word "flourish," It's exactly how I want to live my life!

We discovered a lot about flourishing in our Summer 2022 Book Club-Style Bible Study using the book Aging With Grace by Sharon Betters and Susan Hunt. You can read week one here.

I also love the story of the potter and the clay found in Jeremiah 18, but this is what caught my attention most when I read those chapters—the comparison of a person who does not trust in the Lord to a person who does trust in Him.

“Thus says the Lord: ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.’” Jeremiah 17:5-8

Cursed is the person who DOES NOT trust in Lord:

They are like shrubs in the desert.
They shall not see any good come.
They shall dwell in the parched places.
They shall dwell in an uninhabited salt land.

Blessed is the person who DOES trust in Lord:

They are like a tree planted by the water.
They send [spread] out their roots by the stream.
They do not fear when the heat comes.
Their leaves remain green.
They are not anxious in the year of drought.
They do not cease to bear fruit.

I don’t want to be like a shrub in the desert that dwells in parched and uninhabitable places and sees no good thing.

I want to be a tree planted by the water, spreading out my roots without fear or anxiety. I want my leaves to remain green and I want to never cease bearing fruit for the Kingdom of God! AMEN!!

The passage goes on to remind us how desperately deceitful our hearts can be—we cannot even understand our own hearts. But God does.

I want to trust completely in Him—a tree planted by the Living Water!! How about you?

He searches them out. He knows our motives. He knows who trust in their own way and who trust completely in Him.

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? ‘I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.’”
Jeremiah 17:9-10