Hey, Everybody!
Soon after this post is published, I’ll be on a plane to Sioux Falls, South Dakota for this weekend’s Living Proof Live. I love going to the Dakotas so I am filled with joy over the privilege to serve there and anticipating God’s gracious and obvious (please let it be, Lord) presence crowded around us and welling up within us. Please pray for Jesus to be exalted, experienced, and enthroned there and for many to be saved and stunningly delivered.
My Scripture memory selection this week is springing up from my Monday morning reading there in my den at home. I’ve mentioned many times that I use a different translation for my devotional and prayer time so that the words will fall particularly fresh on me and so that, if the reading happens to be a familiar segment, I can’t anticipate it and unintentionally dismiss it. The translation I often use is The NET Bible. I’m going to give you the whole segment I read Monday morning so that you’ll see the verse I’ve chosen this time around in its context. This is Jeremiah 17:5-8 (NET):
17:5Â The LORD says,
“I will put a curse on people
who trust in mere human beings,
who depend on mere flesh and blood for their strength,
and whose hearts have turned away from the LORD.
17:6Â They will be like a shrub in the desert.
They will not experience good things even when they happen.
It will be as though they were growing in the desert,
in a salt land where no one can live.
17:7Â My blessing is on those people who trust in me,
who put their confidence in me.
17:8Â 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.
If you are like me, you found the way the NET translates the very first verse (V.5) a little disturbing. You’ll be relieved to know this isn’t the Scripture I’ve chosen to memorize (smiling) but it still needs addressing so that we’re not too distracted by it to engross ourselves in the remainder of the segment. If you’re familiar with the passage, you are probably more accustomed to wording like the NIV: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man.” The fact that the NET makes God the one “putting” the curse on man makes us squirm. Before we let it tie us in a knot and throw us in a lake of fear, we have to remind ourselves of our position in Christ. We have the glorious benefit of living this side of the completed work of the Cross and resurrection.
Galatians 3:13 says to our great relief: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us – for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.'”
Jeremiah 17:5 is still tremendously relevant to us because it unfolds the misery of counting on mere flesh and blood. I wonder if the “curse” talked about in this verse is of the same ilk as the one in Genesis 3 that came directly from God to man after the fall in the Garden. If Adam and Eve were doing anything at all when they ate from that tree, they were shifting their trust from God to themselves – mere flesh and blood – by attempting to be God-like. Though the Cross of Christ bore the curse for us, we can still endure the desolation that invariably results from placing our trust and confidence in people rather than God. This gets us where we’re going in our post today. Look back at Jeremiah 17:6 because this is the part that totally captivated me.
“They will be like a shrub in the desert. They will not experience good things even when they happen.”
Read it again if you need to but don’t proceed until you’ve tried to absorb that second sentence. Have you ever been right in the middle of something good happening and yet missed the full experience and joyful impact of it? Surely you’ve said silently to yourself as I’ve said to myself, “I should really be happy right now. What is wrong with me??” You know the feeling. You’re in a celebration or service of some kind or a holiday gathering and yet you almost feel detached from it. You’re there. But you are somehow disconnected from experiencing it. You know “it” (the positive thing presently happening) but you can’t feel it. It’s a good thing but you don’t feel good about it…or in it. What on earth is that about?
Jeremiah would suggest that the experience of good can be disconnected from the good because we are in a season of shifted trust from God to man. When we’ve set our hopes for happiness in how well all our people are doing…getting along…flourishing…affirming us…satisfying us…and all-around-generally-blessing us, and we even get a glimmer of it, we can’t experience the good because we know down deep that we can’t hold onto it. As much as we love all our people, we know that, ultimately, they are not going to come through for us. One shoe will drop. Then the other. The disappointment will come. And the harmony we feel for this moment with our fellow humans could at any second flip upside down into complete mayhem.
Notice the part that says “they will be like a shrub in the desert.” Isn’t it ironic that the more we depend on flesh and blood to come through for us and to fulfill us, the more isolated we become? You’d think that numbers alone would insure company and community. In other words, why derive our strengths and confidences from one God when we could get infinitely more out of all these people? Out of all these communities? Out of all our fellow church members? Out of all our Facebook friends? Our fellow tweeters? Company is one click away.
But it never works that way, does it? We never can let down our guard completely and find any shred of real security from flesh and blood. The person obsessed with us today can turn on us tomorrow and we know it. The person who makes life worth living for us today could die on us tomorrow and we know it. I don’t mean to be morose. I just mean to point out the emotional tightrope we’re walking. Being vastly people-oriented rather than God-oriented always ends up taking us to a place of isolation because they’re invariably busy when we want to play, invariably distracted when we want attention, and invariably more taken with themselves than with us. And so, there we sit, with our trust and confidence in mere flesh and blood and we end up feeling like a shrub in a desert. Just as Jeremiah 17:6 says, “It will be as though [we] are growing in the desert, in a salt land where no one can live.”
Trust in man can seem a great place to visit but no one can really live there and come out calling it living.
It’s so odd to me that the more drawn I feel to God and the more taken I become with His Presence, the freer I am to love other people and the less I hold them responsible for me. Community with God increases our “experience” of good in a community of people. It is its own paradox.
And all of this brings us to the verse I have chosen for my memory work this time around:
Beth, Houston. My blessing is on those people who trust in Me, who put their confidence in Me. Jeremiah 17:7 The NET Bible
And what earthly difference would that make? Well, let’s see…
“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.”
Notice a very intriguing contrast hidden in Jeremiah 17:8 – “It has nothing to fear when the heat comes.”
Reflect back on 17:6b – “They will not experience good things even when [good things] happen.”
When we place our confidence in mere flesh and blood, we are shortchanged even when good things happen. When we place our confidence in God, the Immortal Invisible, we have nothing to fear even when hard things happen. The former leaves us a dry shrub. The latter makes us a fruit-bearing tree.
We never get this lesson learned once and for all, do we? Or maybe it’s just me. I still get so tempted to put my confidence in people and to think that, if all my loved ones were safe, well, and flourishing, I could be so happy. The truth of it is, I do want those things for my loved ones but God alone can come through for them and for me. Anyway, at the end of the day, I could have everything this world could offer and all the good that man could possibly do me and still sit back and think, “Why doesn’t it feel better than this?”
My blessing is on those people who trust in Me, who put their confidence in Me.
Let’s hear your verses, Sisters!
Tags: Scripture Memory 2013
Stacy Carmel,IN ….having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. Col 2:13b-15
Vicki, Smithwick/Marble Falls, TX
“I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” Psalm 27:13 (ESV)
Emily Mechanicsville, VA
For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stad upon the earth. Job 19:25
Kim Rushville, Ohio
“These have come so that your faith- of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire- may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” I Peter 1:7 NIV
Kandi from Tallahassee, Florida
It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in humans. Psalm 118:8 NIV
Thanks for the teaching from Jeremiah. I had already picked out this verse in Psalm to memorize this time and it goes right along with your verse. Must be a God thing!
Donna from Bartlett, TN
Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love,
for I have put my trust in you.
Show me the way I should go,
for to you I entrust my life.
Psalm 143:8 NIV
Ohio
Not by might nor by power but by my spirit says the Lord Almighty.
Zechariah 4:6
Laura, Englewood, For you created my in most being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. Psalm 139:13 NIV
Jill P., Ames, IA
Romans 15:13 (NLT)
I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Birmingham, AL: “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.” John 15:4 ESV
Fran, Stedman, NC
“Ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name; worship the
LORD in the splendor of holiness.” Psalm 29: 2 ESV
Toni, Argyle, TX
Just as it is written, “For Thy sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
Romans 8:36 NASB
Laura , Townsend, MA
My blessing is on those people who trust in me, who put their confidence in Me.
Jeremiah 17:7 NET
Kim, Valdosta, GA
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
II Corinthians 10:3-5, NKJV
“When pride comes then comes disgrace but with humility comes wisdom.” Proverbs 11:2
Rachael Clark, Jersey shore PA
Phil 1:10
“so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,” (NIV)
Jove Grimes, Pace, FL
We love because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19 HCSB)
Jen (Prosper, TX)
You will keep in perfect peace
all who trust in you,
all whose thoughts are fixed on you!
Isaiah 26:3 (NLT)
My blessing is on those people who trust in Me, who put their confidence in Me. Jeremiah 17:7 The NET Bible
Jan, Rockwall TX
Jeremiah 17:7
My blessing is on those people who trust in me, who put their confidence in me.
Tina, Zalma,But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31 (NLT)
Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4 NIV)
Laura
Troy, Ohio
Psalm 73:28 NET
“But for me, God’s presence is all I need.
I have made the Sovereign LORD my shelter,
as I declare all the things you have done.”
Rey from Charlotte, NC
John 15:5
“I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me-and I in him-bears much fruit, because apart from me you can accomplish nothing.” (NET)
Brittnie, Sugar Land, Texas, Psalm 68:19 (NIV) “Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.”
Pamela, Mechanicsville, VA.
My blessing is on those people who trust in Me,
who put their confidence in Me. Jeremiah 17:7
The NET Bible
Ellen, Chattanooga TN
I will lift my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
Psalm 121:1-2 NIV
Jill, Lewisville, TX. “Fear not for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you walk through the waters. I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire, you shall not be burned; and the flame shall not consume you.” Isaiah 43: 1,2 ESV
Cindy, Fort Worth, TX
However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” the things God has prepared for those who love him. 1 Corinthians 2:9 (NIV)
Lichelle, Austin
Romans 12:2
New International Version (NIV)
2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
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
Annette, Lee’s Summit, MO, Colossians 1:19 NIV, “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him”…
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you.” Matthew 7: 7 NKJV
Terry from Jasper, Georgia
2 Samuel 7:28 (NET)
Now, O Sovereign Lord, You are the True God! May Your words prove to be true! You have made this good promise to Your servant.
in Muscle Shoals
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3:17
For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. Proverbs 23:7 NKJV
Hernando Beach, FL
My blessing is on those people who trust in Me, who put their confidence in Me.
Jeremiah 17:7 NET
Alison, Norman, OK
No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God,* is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us. John 1:18 NLT
Hi Beth,
What a very timely message! On my way to work this morning I was asking God how he is going to provide for me and I kept thinking of people I could fall back on. Yet I knew I must not do that but lean on my God.
Ruth Cherry, Royse City, Texas
“Help me to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men.”
Titus 3:2 NIV
Jane Northfield, MN. Psalm 100:3 NIV Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.
Jan, Louisville, KY
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. (Colossians 3:12 NIV)
When you are tempted He will show you a way out so that you can endure.
1 Corn 10:13B NLT
Barb, Kentwood MI:
“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, Creator of the ends of the earth neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak and to those who have no might He increases strength”
Isa 40:28-29 NKJV
“He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will never be shaken.”
~Psalm 62:2
Dana Nance
Blue Ridge, TX
You, O Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.
Psalm 18:28 NIV
Katie from Mount Dora, FL
And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:19 (NIV)
BE joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Romans 12:12 (NIV)
Ann
Mandeville, LA
Molly, Gainesville, GA
“And the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”
II Timothy 2:2
Shelly Wilson, Fort Worth, TX
Hebrews 6:19 (NIV) – We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain.
(The sister right before me posted the same verse, different translation. So cool!)