Choose to Believe & to Trust in God
I was reading this morning in Jeremiah and meditating on one of my favorite verses: Jeremiah 17:7-8 (amplified version)
“Blessed is he/she who believes in, trusts in and relies on the Lord and whose hope & confidence the Lord is. For he/she shall be like a tree planted by the river & it shall not see & fear when heat comes; but its leaf shall be green. It shall not be anxious & full of care in the year of drought. Nor shall it cease yielding fruit.
(meditating: thinking about, pondering, mulling over in your mind and heart with intention)
This verse reminds me that when I choose to believe and trust in the lord… will be like a tree by a river with deep roots- enough to sustain me when times are difficult, when the heat or trials come… and even then I can flourish, live, work, act without fear, but with confidence.
This image reminds me of a hike we took in Kuaui earlier this year There was a hidden trail, down a mountainside to the Wailua waterfall (the one in the opening scene of Fantasy Island). We literally had to cling to the roots of the trees to make our way down this slippery and steep path. Thinking back, it I can envision the way the roots wound down toward the water, they curled around the obstacles to get to the source of their sustenance… and in doing so provided the very hand holds we needed to make it to the waters edge ourselvew.
How does this apply to us? First, we must choose to believe and to trust The Source, God. Second, we must be willing to go over, under, around and through the obstacles, distractions and other impediments that may keep us from getting the sustenance & the strength that we need from God. When we do this, Jeremiah tells us that we will be like these very tress, with roots that go down deep so that the heat doesn’t affect us.
When we choose to believe & trust, to rely on and have our hope and confidence in God, we can flourish even in the tough times. When we chose to believe in & trust God as Our Source, our roots will go down deep and our lives will not dictated by our circumstances. When we rely on and trust in God with a sense of expectancy that God has good things for us… blessings for us to enjoy and to share… We can live with confidence and hope as we rely on the Lord to be our strength and source.
We make a choice regarding what we believe, who we trust and what our minds dwell on all day long. Each time we make the intentional choice to believe and trust in God, our roots go down a bit deeper, our strength, hope & confidence increases. Then,we can not only enjoy the blessings of living with hope, but we may provide the “hand holds” for others on the journey as well.