Thus says the LORD: “ Cursed is the man who trusts in man And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the LORD. For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, And shall not see when good comes, But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, In a salt land which is not inhabited. “ 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. “ The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.--Jeremiah 17:5-10
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
Jeremiah starts off in verse 1 of Chapter 17 saying that the sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron and the point of a diamond on their hearts. They were committed to their sin...to their disobedience and because of this they would not enjoy His blessings...not the ones He had for them now nor the ones that He had planned for them. We miss out on so many of the blessings of the Lord, girls, both the eternal and the temporal ones when we sin. They thought they could get by without Him...by relying on their own ability. They followed blind leaders and allowed their own eyes to be blinded so much so that they went into the ditch together.
Next, he compares the man who trusts in the Lord to the one who trusts in man. The comparison is well let's say....stark. The one who trusts in man is like a shrunken shrub in the desert...dry and parched. The one who puts his trust in the Lord, like a tree planted by the rivers of water whose leaf is ever green and bears fruit continually...even in times of drought. THAT is a beautiful picture. Girls put your hope in the Lord, immerse yourself in the water of His word. Abide in Him...hang on to the vine. The fruit will come without any effort on your part. There will be no struggle. When you find yourself in a trial, look up to Him...not to the world for help...not to the people around us...not inside yourselves...but to Him. The One who knows the end from the beginning...the One who holds the world in the palm of His hand. The One who knows your situation and has you exactly where He wants you to be and knows exactly what you need moment by moment. I love what Warren Wiersbe says here: " Look at others and be distressed, look at yourself and be depressed, look to God and you'll be blessed!"
We come here to one of my favorite verses in Scripture. “ The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?" It remind me that it is not others that are the problem. It is always my heart that is the problem...it is why the Lord tells us to keep our hearts with all diligence for out of it springs the issues of life. Matthew tells us that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. The Lord shows us our hearts only as we gaze deeply into His word. There He reveals to us our motives, desires and wrong thinking. In fact, as I remember back to when I first got saved, I thought if I just stopped doing this or that then I would be perfect. HA! We all have a tendency to think that we can do some pretty good things without the Lord...but that is because we are deceived by our own hearts. The funny thing is though that the longer you walk with the Lord the more you see your own depravity and your need for Him and understand the depth of His forgiveness and your utter need for His grace to you in Christ Jesus. Your conscience is no longer hardened by so much sin and as you surrender to Him, the layers are peeled away making your heart more tender and your vision sharper to see that the problem is truly incurable.(See Romans 7 and then thank God for Romans 8...esp 8:1) You realize that it is only Christ living in you doing the work alone that is good. Your love for Him grows deeper with each and every moment that you abide in Him... And this verse from Romans 5 takes on an increasing depth of meaning... But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
The last verses we look at here (verse 10) tell us the Lord is who tests our heart...all we need to do is look to Him. Girls, we do not know our own hearts...only God does and He rewards us accordingly. When our hearts are not turned toward the truth, we are led astray and eventually find ourselves like that shrub in the desert...alone, parched, shrunken and in dire need. My heart is crying out for each one of you girls and for myself...that we would abide...stay in the word. Without His word our understanding is darkened...the light that is in us dims and we begin to walk in directions we never thought we would. Our heart, in effect, becomes blinded.
But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!-- Matt 6:23
let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water--Heb 10:22
For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.--Heb 10:22
Love
Mom
