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):
17:5 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.
17:6 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.
17:7 My blessing is on those people who trust in me,
who put their confidence in me.
17:8 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
Sherry
Oklahoma
Ps. 91:5 ESV
“You will not fear the terror of the night,nor the arrow that flies by day,”
Pattie Self, San Angelo,TX
Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Psalm 103:1 NIV
1 Peter 4:8 NIV
“Above all, love each other deeply, for love covers over a multitude of sins.”
Penny G
Coweta, OK
How awesome is the Lord Most High, the great King over all the earth.
Psalm 47:2(NIV)
Romans 5:4
And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.
Carmela, Forney, TX: Isaiah 1:19 KJV If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:
Michelle, Carver, MA
“How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.”
Psalms 36:7-9 (NIV)
Sherry
Oklahoma
Ps. 91:5 (NLT)
“Do not be afraid of the terrors of the night, nor the arrow that flies in the day.”
Kathryn, West Palm Beach, FL: “Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” James 1:15 NIV
Jan, Marion IA, “The Lord will uard your going out and your coming in. From this time forth and forever.” Ps. 121:8
Vicki-Lake Jackson, TX
Habakkuk 3:19 NIV
The Sovereign Lord is my strength, he makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to go on the heights.
Delores, Columbia, TN
My blessing is on those who trust in Me,
who put their confidence in Me. Jeremiah 17:7
The NET Bible
Karen, Wyoming
Psalm 1:1 (NIRV)
“Blessed is the one who obeys the law of The Lord. He doesn’t follow the advice of evil people. He doesn’t make a habit of doing what sinners do. He doesn’t join those who make fun of The Lord and his law.”
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Romans 12:12 NIV
Valerie, Fultondale, AL
“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.” Psalm 107:1 NIV
Valerie, Fultondale, AL
“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.” Psalm 107:1 NIV
Beth Mt. Carmel, IL
Prov. 9:6
“Leave your simple ways & you will live; walk in the way of understanding.”
Sara, Garden City, KS
She opens her mouth with wisdom, And on her tongue is the law of kindness. (Proverbs 31:26 NKJV)
Shelley
Springfield, MO
But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. (2 Corinthians 2:14 ESV)
Psalm 55:22 Amp.
Cast your burden on the Lord (releasing the weight of it) and He will sustain you,
He will never allow the (consistently) righteous to be moved (made to slip, fall or fail).
Laura Beth, Jackson, MS
Exodus 14:14, NLT
The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.
Linda, Bartelso, IL There is no favoritism with God.
Hcsb Romans 2:11
Stephanie McKenzie
Red Deer, Alberta
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7 NIV)
Tillie, Spring Branch, TX
And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
1 John 5:11 (NIV)
“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you;
seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”
(Luke 11:9, 10 NIV)
Lori
San Angelo, Tx
He is like a tress planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.
Jeremiah 17:8 ESV
Jill from Houma, LA
Commit your actions to the Lord and your plans will succeed.
Prov 16:3 (NLT)
Debbie, Calgary AB. Canada
My blessing is on those people who trust in me,
who put their confidence in me.
( Jeremiah 17:7 NET)
Lindsay, West Point, NE
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1 NIV
Ashley from Allen, TX
Matthew 4:19 (ESV)
And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
Mar Jo The Woodlands, TX
My blessing is on those people who trust in Me, who put their confidence in Me. Jeremiah 17:7 The NET Bible
Elaine, New Orleans, LA
“So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” Ephesians 5:17 NASB
Deb Bradenton, FL. Phil 3:10 ESV: that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.
Linda in Holland, OH
In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul. Psalm 94:19
Heather, Charleston, formerly Mt Pleasant.
My blessing is on those people who trust in Me, who put their confidence in Me. Jeremiah 17:7 The NET Bible
(Whew! Almost 3 months getting moved n settled again. I’m claiming settled though the last box has yet to go out the door. I have a new city! And a new email but I didn’t want to spring too much on you at LP so I used old one since it still works.)
Old email that is. LOL
pamela t., Fairmont, NC
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)
“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come!”
Angie, Chillicothe, MO; “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7, KJV
James 1:6 NIV
But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.
Reanna-Cypress, CA
“Finally, be strong in The Lord and in his mighty power. Put OnThe full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.”
Ephesians 6:10-11 NIV
Atlanta, GA
“Let your conversation be always full of grace,
seasoned with salt, so that you may know
how to answer everyone.” Colossians 4:6 NIV
Heather, Louisville
” Above all clothe yourselves with love which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”
Colossians 3:14 NRSV
Beth C, Huntsville, AL
Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving
Colossians 4:2 ( KJV )
Ana from Tampa, FL
Romans 12:12 (NIV)
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
April
Pittsburgh, PA
Jude :2 NIV
Mercy, Peace and Love be yours in abundance
Melisse, Slippery Rock, PA
2 Timothy 1:7 For we have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind.
“Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure.”
Psalm 16:5 NIV ’84
Janet from Pearland, Texas
Lisa, Simsboro, LA
“My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.” Psalms 139:15-16a NIV
Kim, Pearland, TX
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV
Blanche, Pearland, TX
Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
Philippians 4:6 KJV
Before they call I will answer; while they are speaking I will hear. Isaiah 65:24 ESV