What do you do when things don’t go your way? What do you do when your circumstances scorch you? Do you know where to go? Do you know what to look for?
Consider a tree, the main parts of the tree are its roots, leaves and bark/stem. These three parts function to find the basic ingredients a tree needs to thrive. The three basic things a tree needs to be healthy and grow are water, nutrients and sunlight. The roots of trees and plants are designed to search out and absorb water. Nutrients from the soil and water are absorbed through the roots and the leaves take in sunlight, and using these ingredients the plant/tree is nourished by the food it makes. It stays healthy because of the rain, sun and soil it has to grow. Suppose the circumstances were different, let’s say there is a drought or no rain. The roots then go deeper or further and sometimes even outside the soil to absorb the water it needs. So lets take a look at a tree that grows beside a river – it sends out its roots deeper into the river to get both the nutrients and the water it needs. The sun that is scorching down on it cannot dry out tree because of its constant supply of water and the tree continues to thrive.
Sometimes in life things just don’t go our way. Sometimes the circumstances can choke our dreams and desires. However, if we, like the tree by the river know what we need and how to get it we can use our resources to stabilize ourselves and even thrive.
Here’s a tree that is by the river that digs it’s roots into the river to keep the scorching sun from drying it out to death. Something to think about: what do we dig deeper into? Whom do we trust? where or what is our source of life?
In Jeremiah chapter 17 The Bible records what the Almighty Lord reveals through the prophet. He compares a man who hopes in the Lord and doesn’t merely trust or rely on his/her own abilities to a tree that is planted by a river. The healthy seed has all it needs to grow into a healthy tree however it relies on external resources to nourish its potential. Likewise a man who faces challenges relies not only in his/her abilities but uses those abilities to go deeper into his/her source of Life by exercising faith.
Jeremiah 17:5 – 8.
“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
who draws strength from mere flesh
and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
6 That person will be like a bush in the wastelands;
they will not see prosperity when it comes.
They will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
in a salt land where no one lives.
7 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. 8 They 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 year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
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