Trust in the Lord
A tree-mendous picture of faith
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My blessing is on those people who trust in me, who put their confidence in me. They will be like a tree planted near a stream whose roots spread out toward the water. It has nothing to fear when the heat comes. Its leaves are always green. It has no need to be concerned in a year of drought. It does not stop bearing fruit.
Jeremiah 17:7-8 (NET)
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This one reminds me a lot of Psalm 1.
Another poetic echo of a wisdom passage, meaning it’s generally true but not always absolutely true.
The general guidance:
Trust in the Lord and place your confidence in Him.
(which is just another way of saying trust in the Lord.)
Trees, of course, cannot move (unless you’re in The Lord of the Rings, but that’s a fictional story for another day). But if they could move, they would all be clamoring to get near the water.
Lucky for us, we can move.
More than that, we can move spiritually toward God.
Reaching out with the “roots” of our hearts & minds toward the Living Water.
If we’re rooted in Christ (the source of eternal, Living Water) then we have nothing to fear from the hardships of life.
The heat comes. Droughts overtake us. Yet we can remain vibrant, green, and bear fruit.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve had plenty of spiritual droughts in my life. Seasons when I didn’t feel like God was speaking to me and my quiet times felt dry.
But God wasn’t absent; He was still working.
In fact, He’s always at work around me.
My feelings tried to deceive me, but the Truth was always there, leading me in the way everlasting.
Perhaps the most important part is that this tree does not stop bearing fruit.
We should do the same.
— Ricky Ketchum
Copyright © 2025 by Ricky Ketchum. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication prohibited.
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