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,
âI 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
“And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God”
Micah 6:8 NKJ
Carol, Santa Maria, Acts 11:21, “The LORD’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the LORD.” This is my heart’s cry.
Eugene,OR
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. 1 Peter 5:6-7 NISV
Natalie, Houston
This is what the Lord says to you: âDo not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but Godâs. (2 Chronicles 20:15 NIV)
Alyson, Elgin TX
The righteous cry out, and The Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. Psalm 34:17 NIV
Michelle, Alberta, Canada
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
– Mark 12:29-31
Judy, Beaumont, California
My blessing is on those people who trust in Me, who put their confidence in Me.
Jeremiah 17:7 NET
Terri, Papua New Guinea. “‘Give us today our daily bread.'” Matthew 6:11, NIV.
Port Orchard, WA
Luke 6:46 NIV
âWhy do you call me, âLord, Lord,â and do not do what I say?
Janet – Columbus, GA: “Whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.” -Mark 11:25, NKJV
Missie, Marble Falls,TX “My blessing is on those people who trust in Me, who put their confidence in Me.” Jeremiah 17:7 NET
Psalm 39:7 NKJV
And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in you.
Kelli Apex NC
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Phil 2:3 esv
Kathi Vodenicker Jacksonville, Fl “You did not choose me, but I choose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit-fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.” John 15:16
Lynn, Lake Villa, IL
I was struggling to find a ver this time and the one you chose Beth, fits perfectly in my life right now. Thanks for sharing the context as well. What a rich text and promise.
Jeremiah 17:7 NET
My blessing is on those people who trust in Me, who put their confidence in Me.
Eph. 4:29 do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. NIV
Jolie – Cottage Grove, MN
…rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer;
Romans 12:12 NKJV
Pam In Texas
For Christ’s sake, I am content
with weaknesses… For when
I am weak, then i am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:10 (ESV)
Jennifer, Monroe, GA
But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out of it. I Timothy 6:6-7 NIV
Stephanie. Danville ky
Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?
Hebrew 11:7. NIV
Nancy D.
Round Rock, TX
“Because of the Lordâs great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22, 23 NIV)
Jane, Cuba, Missouri
Eph. 6:16 NIV
In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
Carol
Carthage, NY
She is clothed with strength & dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.
Proverbs 31:25 NIV
Kerry from Houston, TX
Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love,
for in you I trust.
Make me know the way I should go,
for to you I lift up my soul.
Psalm 143:8 ESV
Heather King
Gloucester, VA
My blessing is on those people who trust in Me, who put their confidence in Me (Jeremiah 17:7 The NET Bible)
“For I give you sound teaching, do not abandon my instruction.”
Proverbs 4:2
NASB
Jayne- Frisco,Tx
Susan, Tallahassee, Fla.
In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory. Ephesians 1:13-14 NKJV
Woodstock, GA
“But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him.” Jeremiah 17:7 NIV
Caroline, Rio WI
“My blessing is on those people who trust in Me, who put their confidence in Me.”
Jeremiah 17:7 The NET
Kathy Bryson
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Hosea 6:3 NLT
Oh, that we might know the Lord! Let us press on to know him. He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring.â
Elisa, New York
James 1:19 NLT
Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.
Cara, Oswego. “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” Colossians 3:12 NIV
De Anna Morris- Greenville SC
1 Peter2:15 NIV
For it is Godâs will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people.
Karen, Dallas, TX:
Oh, the depth of the riches
of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
Romans 11:33 NIV
Karen, Clarksville, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” Ephesians 4:29 NIV
Fran
Eden Prairie, MN
If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” Matthew 21:22 (NIV)
And the peace of God,
which transcends all understanding will
guard your hearts and your minds
in Christ Jesus.
Phil 4:7
Kim, Corning, NY. “The one who spares his rod hates his child, but the one who loves his child is diligent in disciplining him” (Prov. 13:24 NET).
Jessica (Loganville, GA)
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong an courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for The Lord your Gid will be with you wherever you go.)
Joshua 1:9 (NIV)
Lisa from Arlington, Tx:
“For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.”
I Cor. 4:20 NIV
Schel, Bayou Vista, TX-“In the same way, let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in Heaven” – Matthew 5:16 (NIV)
..it (she) has nothing to fear when the heat comes. Jer17:8
JoAnn, Columbus
James 1:20 NIV
for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.
Amy, Chattanooga, TN. But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. 1 Peter: 5:10, NKJV.
Mary Soisson, Barboursville, VA
Good sense makes a man slow to anger,
and it is his glory to overlook an offense.
Proverbs 19:11 RSV
Vicki Knott, Greenwood, S.C.
The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Deuteronomy 31:8 (NIV)
Blair from Harrisburg, NC
But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.
Jeremiah 17:7 NIV
Michele, Cumming GA
Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. John 7:38 NIV
Sharpsburg, Ga
Isaiah 33:6 NIV
“He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.”
Andrea, Pottstown
For in Him we live and move and exist. As one of your own poets says, “We are his offspring.” Acts 17:28 NLT