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
Visalia, CA
John 14:1
Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.
half way through radiation….
Debbie, Hattiesburg, MS:
“Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge; Even the Most HIgh, your dwelling place, No evil shall befall you, Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling.”
Psalm 91:9-10 (NKJV)
Joy, Clyde, Ohio
When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You.
Psalm 56:3 NASB
Betty, Austin, Texas, Psalm 25:15 NIV
My eyes are ever on the Lord, for only he will release my feet from the snare.
Beth R. liberty Lake, Wa
James 1:15 NIV
Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
Sam
Rowley, IA
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NKJV
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Ruth Larkin, Shawnee, KS
Jeremiah 17:7-8 (NET) —
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 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.
Sarah, Oklahoma City, 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)
May the Lord give strength to His people!
May the Lord bless His people with peace!
Psalm 29:11 ESV
Johnnie, Wake Forest, NC
Megan, Tx
The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17 NIV)
Megan, Houston
The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17 NIV)
Kimberly, Watha, John 6:37,39, HCSB
Everyone the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never cast out. This is the will of Him who sent Me: that I should lose none of those He has given Me but should raise them up on the last day.
Late, but not forgotten
Amber, Norman, OK
Philippians 2:3 NIV
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves.
WOAH!!! And THANK YOU, Beth, for showing us how much you love Jesus! I just watched a video of your story of the man in the airport who needed his hair brushed, then read your August 7th post, then read this one. God sure knows what He’s doing. I needed all of those. This post really hits home for me. I am that person right now! In the desert….literally and figuratively. I have wandered away from God and all if His blessings like a stream that dries up on the desert. I have an amazing life and nearly every day am left asking myself why I am not overwhelmed with excitement. I realize ( now and when I’m asking myself) that its because I know Jesus and He is my standard for joy and excitement. Nothing can even come close to Him.
God has gifted me with a wonderful husband and when he travels for work( which is often) the joy of God’s blessing evaporates again….because our marriage is a gift from God, and is not God Himself. Since moving to El Paso,TX ( the literal desert!) after spending my life in Florida and Georgia where there is an abundance of growth and life, I feel like God has evaporated from my life. I know that it is my doing and that He is always right there. But I don’t know how to keep Him in my life. I feel like the bush in the desert!
Thank you for sharing your love of Jesus. I feel as if it just rained!
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. (Romans 12:12 NIV)
Amy Gossen
Carthage, MO
SSMT # 15: You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was being woven together in the darkness of the womb. Psalm 139:15 of 24 NLT
Christy, Zionsville, IN
Hebrews 4:12, NIV
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates, even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Sarah from Brownwood says
S. of S. 2:4. NASB
He has brought me to His banquet hall,
And
Sarah from Brownwood says
S of S. 2:4. NASB
He has brought me to His banquet hall,
And His banner over me is love.
1 John 3:18
Dear children let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
Janet, Port Orange
(James 1:20) because our anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. (TNIV)
Janet Port Orange
(James 1:20) because our anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires (TNIV)
(not sure this went through, so I am re-submitting)
No power in the sky above or in the earth below – indeed nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:39 NLT
Paulette, Belleville, IL
Let brotherly love continue. Heb 13:1 NKJV
Faye, Calgary AB Canada
( can’t remember if I posted already)
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. (2 Corinthians 4:7-10 NIV)
“Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.”
Ephesians 6:11 NIV
Amanda, Van Buren, AR
Megan S.-Kansas City, KS
Psalm 119:133 NIV
Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me.
Cindy B, west palm beach fl
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,” Ephesians 3:20 NIV
Allie S. South Pasadena CA
In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” Isaiah 30:15 NKJV
Katherine, Atlanta, GA
Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another.
Romans 12:10 NKJV
Norka – Mississauga, ON Canada
“ And Hannah prayed and said,
My heart exults in the LORD;
my horn is exalted in the LORD.
My mouth derides my enemies,
because I rejoice in your salvation.
There is none holy like the LORD:
for there is none besides you;
there is no rock like our God.”
1Samuel 2:1-2
James 1: 1-4 NKJ
James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad:
Greetings.
2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
Mark 12:30
Cheri
Louisville, KY
Paula, Maine
Their hearts are confident, and they are fearless, for they expect to see their enemies defeated. Psalm 112:8 the Voice translation
LoriAngela, Chilliwack, BC, Canada
“He heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds. He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name. Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite.” Psalm 147:3-5 NKJ
Martha from Corpus Christi
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
Joshua 1:9 NASB
Diane Wadsworth, Pleasant Grove, Alabama
Psalm 25:10, NLT
“The Lord leads with unfailing love and faithfulness all who keep his covenant and obey his demands.”
Laura K, Spearfish, SD
My blessing is on those people who trust in Me, who put their confidence in Me. Jeremiah 17:7 The NET Bible
Debbie, Folly Beach, SC
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 NIV
Courtney, Houma, LA
My blessing is on those people who trust in Me, who put their confidence in Me. Jeremiah 17:7 The NET Bible
Caryn from Grand Prairie, TX
“And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful.”
2 Timothy 2:24
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
I Corinthians10:13
Caroline
Waco, TX
Matthew 5:16
In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
Jenna
Waco, TX
ISo let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive His mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. Hebrews 4:16 (NLT)
Melissa
Waco, TX
Suzy – Orlando, FL
My blessing is on those people who trust in Me, who put their confidence in Me. Jeremiah 17:7 The NET Bible
Deedi Kodak, TN
In God,whose word I praise, In God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?
Psalm 56:4
ESV
Spring, TX
so that you may live worthily of the lord and please him in all respects – bearing fruit in every good deed, growing in the knowledge of God,
Colossians 1:10 (NET)
Lea from Granger, IN: “Blessed is the man who trusts in The Lord, and whose trust is the Lord. Jer 17:7 (ESV)
His soul shall dwell at ease; and his seed shall inherit the earth. KJV
Mary Beth, Tenn, Matthew 16:24 NIV Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.