Jeremiah 17:7-8 reads, "'But blessed is the mans who trusts in the Lords, whose confidence is in Him. He 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 dought and never fails to bear fruit.'"
This passage opened up this morning when I was flipping through my Bible at church during worship. We had yet another blow last night with the company and I have to admit, I was not excited about going to church this morning. I wanted to stay home and sulk. And continue to ask why this keeps happening over and over again. However, my spirit was stirring. And Abi REALLY wanted to go. Mark and Amanda have pink eye, so they were staying home anyway. I knew I needed to go, and I knew it was also not right to keep Abi from church just because of the state of my heart. So, I went upstairs and turned on some worship music while I got ready. I pulled up the music that the team was going to sing this morning as well as the set I will be singing next week. God is so good. The first song I clicked on was "You Are Holy (Prince of Peace)" by Michael W. Smith. "You are Lord of Lords, You are King of Kings, You are Mighty God, Lord of Everything. You're Emmanuel, You're the Great I AM, You're my Prince of Peace, Who is the Lamb. You're the Living God, You're my Saving Grace, You will reign forever, You are Ancient of Days. You are Alpha, Omega, Beginning and End. You're my Savior, Messiah, Redeemer and Friend. You're my Prince of Peace and I will live my life for you." As if that weren't enough to point be back in the right direction, here is the next song that I opened up: Todd Fields' "It is Well." We all know the verses well. Here is chorus, the part that stuck with me this morning, "It is well, it is well, through the storm I am held. It is well, it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well, God has won, Christ prevailed. It is well, it is well with my soul." It is so easy to say those words when things are going really well. But when you are struck down again and again, it's not so easy to say them and mean it. To truly mean "it is well with my soul." This morning, I did not start out feeling like all was well with my soul. However, knowing that the Lord brought these words to me to speak to me personally in this storm, It was easier to choke them out through the tears.
As I headed to church with Abi, my soul was quiet. Rested. And I was ready for what the Lord was going to speak to me. When I got into service, I stayed in the back, sat down and opened up my Bible while the worship was going on. Worship is my pathway and I knew the Lord had something He wanted to say to me. Some words of encouragement for this moment in our journey. He fed me all kinds of encouraging scripture. And in the midst of it all the team began to sing "My Savior, My God." The chorus says this, "My Savior loves, my Savior lives, my Savior's always there for me. My God He was, my God He is, my God is always gonna be. " My Savior is always there for ME. As if this weren't enough to encourage me and to let me know He was in control and would take care of us, he brought me to Jeremiah 17:7-8 written above.
Now I hope my pastor isn't reading this because I have NO idea what his message was today. I was so tuned in to what the Lord was speaking to me that I didn't hear a word from the pulpit. However, I think he would be okay with that knowing I was listening to the sweet words of my Father. Here is how these 2 verses were broken down for me:
vs. 8 " He will be like a tree planted my the water that sends out roots by the stream." We are to plant ourselves by the stream of Living Water, to send our roots toward that stream. To spend time with God, reading His word, soaking it in, drawing His words up through our roots and through our branches so that we may continue to have green leaves and bear fruit. So that we can LIVE. HE is the source of our water, the source of our life. He will give us what we need to survive if we only trust and believe in Him. If we continue to seek Him in all we do and all we are.
The next part of vs. 8 reads, "It does not fear heat when it comes; its leaves are always green." If we continue to soak up the Living Water from the stream by which we are planted, we will never wither. We will remain green. We will continue to live. Because we have planted ourselves by the stream of water. Our roots have reached out to it and continue to drink from it. We have a constant source of life right beside us if we will only reach for it. We do not need to fear the heat, the struggles, the obstacles, the seemingly endless, dark tunnel. We need only reach for that source of Life.
The last part of vs 8 reads, "It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit." No worries in a YEAR of drought. A year! We have so much water to drink from and stored up that we need not worry. He is our constant life support. HE provides everything we need to survive, if we only look to the Lord and soak up all that He is, all the He has promised and all that He has to offer. He will guide us and give us strength and life.
As much as I question, I turn to worship which always leads me to the Word. I praise through my tears, frustration, questions....because there is Joy in those moments. Answers in the tears. Direction in the midst of chaos. And if I praise through it all, the enemy will not be able to get a foothold. If I go straight to worship and the Scriptures, the voices of doubt, discouragement and hopelessness are gone. Even when I don't feel like it, I worship. Because I know I will hear Truth. I will be encouraged. I will not know all the answers, but I will be reminded that I am not alone. That there is a bigger picture, a bigger purpose and a God who loves me like no other. A god who will not ever let me down. Who will be my one constant Rock through it all. So I will swim in the waters of Life. Take a deep drink of the water by which I have been planted. Soak up the water through my roots and allow it to flow through the branches, that my leaves will continue to be green and that I may continue to bear fruit in the midst of this drought. The source of Life is always beside you. Stand firm and full of life where you are.
We moved into a rental home a couple of months ago. We are in a beautiful location.... right next to the water. It's a canal, and we are right at the "T". God knew when He gave us this home that I would need this physical picture of being planted right by the water. This was not by chance. It was ordained for moments just like this. My Lord knew what was coming and planned ahead, like He always does. Oh, how much He loves me. How much He loves all of us.
Just in case I didn't quite get how much He loves me, He had my 4-year old daughter take the picture at the start of the blog. I had to chuckle about this when I was thinking through the past couple of days. I was taking pictures of the gorgeous glass-like water reflecting the clouds above. My daughter happened to take a picture of the tree by the water. And she hit the button by accident. Or so I thought. It ended up being my favorite picture! And today I realized this. There are 4 fruit trees in our back yard. This particular one is the closest one to the water (by inches) and looks to be the only one that will bear fruit this season. Chance? No way. I truly believe that my Lord orchestrated all of this to speak to me so clearly in this very moment. To remind me that He has a plan, He knows the order, and if we follow and obey, standing firm and blossoming where we are planted, the He will take care of the rest. That I can have peace in knowing He is in control. So here is a picture of peace, the one He gave me yesterday. Find peace where you are, seek Him always, and reach for the Living Water. He will give you LIFE.
