| “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” |
| —Jeremiah 17:7-8 |
I overheard a woman talking to her friend, as she passed near the entrance to the Garden Center of one of the well-known Big Box stores.
“I am an expert—a highly skilled expert—at killing plants!”
Her friend laughed quite heartily, so I guess she was confirming the retort of her companion.
No matter what the color of your thumb, most people can spot healthy vegetation. Even I, who doesn’t know one plant from the other, can spot when a plant that should have green leaves is now all brown with neglect or disease. We can tell the health of living things by the way they look.
Did you know we can tell the spiritual health of someone from how they look spiritually? While we are enjoined by Scripture to never judge, we can examine fruit and sometimes get an idea of how someone’s personal spiritual formation is doing. The Prophet Jeremiah seemed to have this kind of idea in mind when he wrote down these words of God, as recorded in Jeremiah 17:7-8:
“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
One of the ways we show spiritual health is disclosed by the way we trust God and believe that He has our best interest at heart. So, it makes sense, at the beginning of this new day, to renew our trust in the God who loves us with His everlasting love. As we move through the day, we can look for evidences of His care. He is always at work in our behalf. Sometimes we simply do not see His hand because we do not look carefully enough.
So, let’s be hyper-aware of God’s Presence in our lives and know that He is always opening up the way before us. We do not travel the road of life alone. God the Holy Spirit is our comfort and our guide. We can take great confidence in the truth of that reality.
Based on a blog originally posted on Tuesday, July 11, 2017
