Jeremiah 17:7-8 Christian Standard Bible
7 The person who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence indeed is the Lord, is blessed.
8 He will be like a tree planted by water:
it sends its roots out toward a stream,
it doesn’t fear when heat comes,
and its foliage remains green.
It will not worry in a year of drought
or cease producing fruit.
Word of God for the Children of God
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
There’s something about walking in the woods that quiets the noise of this fallen world.
As soon as you step onto a forest trail, the busy pace of your life starts to slow down.
The sounds of traffic fade away, and so does the pressure of your stressful schedule and responsibilities.
Trees tower over you, leaves crunch beneath your shoes, and sunlight filters through the tree branches to scatter across the forest floor.
All of that can raise your perspective beyond your to-do list and inspire you to pay attention to your surroundings.
In the woods, it becomes much easier to notice God’s presence with you than when you’re inside chaos, because creation naturally points to the Creator.
When you look at the trees around you, you can see that they aren’t running around anxiously or trying to rush to grow.
They simply live the way God designed them to live – with confident trust that their Creator will provide what they need.
Jeremiah 17:7-8 says that the person who trusts in the Lord is like a tree planted beside water, sending its roots toward the stream.
When the heat comes, that tree doesn’t fear.
Its leaves remain green, even in seasons of drought, it continues to bear fruit.
In the woods, some trees have grown for generations.
Over the years, they’ve faced storms, high winds, seasons of dryness, harsh winters, and intense summer heat.
Yet they remain standing, strongly rooted in the same place where they began.
Trees’ strength comes from their roots. Beneath the soil, an unseen network of roots stretches outward and downward, quietly, steadily drawing its water and nutrients from the earth.
Those roots work constantly, even though no one passing by ever notices them.
That hidden connection is what allows the tree to survive even in the harshest conditions.
Trust in God works in much the same way.
Most of the time, trust grows quietly beneath the surface of your life.
It develops in the everyday moments when you turn your thoughts toward God instead of letting worry take over.
It deepens more when you bring your concerns to God in prayer instead of trying to carry them alone.
It strengthens each time you remind yourself that God’s wisdom, knowledge of His Creation, reaches far beyond what you can know or see.
Just like roots slowly pushing through the soil, implicit trust develops over time through steady habits. Walking in the woods can help you remember that truth.
Every tree you pass is a living picture of what it looks like to stay connected to a source of life.
Those trees don’t control the weather.
They can’t stop the wind or make it rain.
Their stability comes from just remaining steadily rooted beside the water that sustains them.
God invites you to live with that same kind of connection.
Trusting God allows your life to become steady in that same way. You’ll still sometimes face challenging circumstances, but you’ll be able to overcome those challenges because you’ll be rooted in a strong relationship with God.
Whenever you need inspiration, take a long walk in the woods.
Notice the quiet dignity, majesty and strength of the trees around you, and how their branches stretch toward the sky with confidence.
Picture the tree roots beneath the soil, spreading outward in search of water.
God is inviting you to live with that kind of trust.
While you walk, connect with God in prayer, and he’ll meet you where you are.
God serves as our personal guide with every step we take through life, and we can trust him to meet all our needs – as he does for all the trees all around us.
TRUST……
HOPE …..
These are precious priceless commodities…and not very plentiful, or common, in our day, are they?
There are just too many things we can’t or refuse to trust in or depend on!
But did you notice what they do for the one who TRUSTS in the LORD?…and for the one who’s HOPE is the LORD?
That one is abundantly blessed…happy!!
He is like a tree whose roots reach all the way down to a continual source of life-giving and refreshing water.. always fully satisfied and nurtured by the GOODNESS of GOD!!
Can you imagine anything better in the heat or droughts that come our way–than to have infinitely more than maximum access to the real Source of Life!!
GOD offers that to you and me!!
We just need to reach for Him–as a tree sends it thirsty roots in search of life-giving water….
Really HOPING…..
Truly TRUSTING the LORD….
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Praying ……
Psalm 104
God the Creator
1 My soul, bless the Lord!
Lord my God, you are very great;
you are clothed with majesty and splendor.
2 He wraps himself in light as if it were a robe,
spreading out the sky like a canopy,
3 laying the beams of his palace
on the waters above,
making the clouds his chariot,
walking on the wings of the wind,
4 and making the winds his messengers,[a]
flames of fire his servants.
5 He established the earth on its foundations;
it will never be shaken.
6 You covered it with the deep
as if it were a garment;
the water stood above the mountains.
7 At your rebuke the water fled;
at the sound of your thunder they hurried away—
8 mountains rose and valleys sank[b]—
to the place you established for them.
9 You set a boundary they cannot cross;
they will never cover the earth again.
10 He causes the springs to gush into the valleys;
they flow between the mountains.
11 They supply water for every wild beast;
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
12 The birds of the sky live beside the springs;
they make their voices heard among the foliage.
13 He waters the mountains from his palace;
the earth is satisfied by the fruit of your labor.
14 He causes grass to grow for the livestock
and provides crops for man to cultivate,
producing food from the earth,
15 wine that makes human hearts glad—
making his face shine with oil—
and bread that sustains human hearts.
16 The trees of the Lord flourish,[c]
the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
17 There the birds make their nests;
storks make their homes in the pine trees.
18 The high mountains are for the wild goats;
the cliffs are a refuge for hyraxes.
19 He made the moon to mark the[d] festivals;[e]
the sun knows when to set.
20 You bring darkness, and it becomes night,
when all the forest animals stir.
21 The young lions roar for their prey
and seek their food from God.
22 The sun rises; they go back
and lie down in their dens.
23 Man goes out to his work
and to his labor until evening.
24 How countless are your works, Lord!
In wisdom you have made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.[f]
25 Here is the sea, vast and wide,
teeming with creatures beyond number—
living things both large and small.
26 There the ships move about,
and Leviathan, which you formed to play there.
27 All of them wait for you
to give them their food at the right time.
28 When you give it to them,
they gather it;
when you open your hand,
they are satisfied with good things.
29 When you hide your face,
they are terrified;
when you take away their breath,
they die and return to the dust.
30 When you send your breath,[g]
they are created,
and you renew the surface of the ground.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 