“Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is in 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 leave will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.” –Jeremiah 17:7-8
There are a lot of days that go by when I feel that God has specifically turned the heat on me. It seems that each trial I face in the day was designed to make me weaker, or it set me up to fail. Sometimes I even get mad at God and tell Him that He doesn’t know what He’s doing, putting all these trials in my life.
Then I read a couple short verses in Jeremiah 17. They hit me square between the eyes and challenge my thinking. Do I trust in the Lord? Do I hope in the Lord? The answer to both those questions is a resounding yes, so I keep reading. The man that trusts and hopes in the Lord is like a tree planted by waters. The roots go deep and spread out, they go deeper than the surface dirt.
Then the heat comes. And the heat will come, but this tree, because its roots go deep, will not get dried up in the heat. This tree will not fear the heat, but will welcome it. The roots are deep, much deeper than the shallow ground that will dry up in the midst of the heat of a drought. This tree will continue to bear fruit through it all.
This is what my life and your life can look like in the midst of a trial. We can set our roots deep in the Lord, fully trusting Him. We can go beyond the shallow ground and dig deep into His Word to find hope. Then, when trials come, we will be unaffected by the heat and we will still bear fruit in the midst of the drought.
Do you trust the Lord? Do you hope in the Lord?
