“But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such tress are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7-8 (NLT)
I like the way this verse reads in the NLT. I like it in other versions too, but I truly like the way this version reads about the Lord being their hope and confidence. You see that is what trusting the Lord gives you. It’s not that everything is going right all the time when you trust in the Lord, but it’s the hope and the confidence that He will see you through until things do go right again. At least that is my opinion of it. Trusting that the Lord has you in whatever season or circumstance is not waking up with some Pollyanna worldview that all is right with the world today. But it’s that hope, it’s living with the confidence that better days are coming.
I love the way this verse says that those who put their trust in the Lord are like trees planted by a riverbank. Have you ever floated down a river or just looked out over a bridge at the lush greenery that will be planted beside the riverbank? Trees that are planted by a river will always be green and lush even in hot and dry seasons because of the source of water. You look at trees or greenery planted out in the middle of a field with no water source nearby and when the season is hot and dry the leaves begin to wither and fall off.
We are much the same way, when we put our trust in the Lord and place our hope and confidence in Him we will thrive. But we have to stay close to the source to keep our hope and confidence, especially in the hard seasons of life. We have to make sure that our roots are planted deep by the riverbank. And when they are we may feel the heat but deep down it will not shake us. We may know that things are dry out there in the world but we have the river and deep in our souls we can know that we will make it. And best of all we can keep producing fruit. We can keep loving people, we can keep spreading hope to others and hopefully we will invite others to come plant their roots by our riverbank as well so they may have the hope and confidence that comes from the river!
Restore 