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
Muriel, Ontario
Romans 8:27 (NIV)
And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.
Pam, Campbellsburg In. He is your praise and He is your God who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen…. Dueteronomy 10;21
NSFL NKJV
Lynn ~ Orlando, FL
“My blessing is on those people who trust in Me, who put their confidence in Me.”
~ Jeremiah 17:7 (NET)
KariAnn – Houston
Isaiah 30:15 (NRSV)
In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”
Esther, Jonesborough, TN. Isaiah 25:1 ESV. O LORD you are my God; I will exalt you; I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure.
Lyndsey, NC
SO late on posting!
Colossians 3:12-14
The Message (MSG)
12-14 So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.
Penny, Cincinnati: And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels can’t, and the demons can’t. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t keep God’s love away. Romans 8:38, NLT
Terri, Pleasant Hope, MO
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12:9 (ESV)
Karen, Christy, Cheryl A Cord of Three Strands Jay, OK
My blessing is on those people who trust in Me, who put their confidence in Me. Jeremiah 17:7
Niki Carroll; Shelby, NC: “My blessing is on those people who trust in me,
who put their confidence in me.” Jeremiah 17:7 (NET)
Taryn from Corinth, TX
I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
Philippians 4:13 (NIV)
Terri, Plano, TX…Jeremiah 17:7 NET
My blessing is on those people who trust in me, who put their confidence in Me.
Shannon, Blacksburg VA
James 5:11 HCSB
see, we count as blessed those who have endured. You have heard of Job’s endurance and have seen the outcome from The Lord. The Lord is very compassionate and merciful.
Sharon from Van
The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles.
Psalm 34:17
NIV
Teri S. Gadsden, AL
Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of rightousness.
James 3:18 NIV
righteousness
Aimee- Houston, TX
“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope you have. But do so with gentleness and respect…” 1 Peter 3:15 NIV
Alissa, Spring, TX
“For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.”
1 Corinthians 4:20 NIV
Ainslie, Columbia SC
“In times of disaster they will not wither; in days of famine they will enjoy plenty.” ~Psalm 37:19 NIV
Linda,Westport
For we are God’s fellow workers You are God’s field, God’s building
! Corinthians3:9 ESV
Riverton, UT
So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. (Psalm 90:12 ESV)
Denise Wilkin
The Woodlands, Texas
Luke 11:9
“So I say to you, ask, and it shall be given to you, seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you.”
NKJV
Mary Grace, Bolivar Missouri,
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
1Corinthians 1:18
NIV:
Prov. 20:15
Lips that speak knowledge are a rare jewel.
NIV
Romans 12:12
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Shelly, Rochester, MN
Dear children, let us not love with words or speech, but with actions and in truth. 1 John 3:18 NIV
Cindy,Alton NH James 1:3&4 ESV
For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect, complete, & lacking in nothing.
Tina
Waxahachie, Texas
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Isaiah 41:10 (NIV)
Becky Mansfield, Ohio
He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense; I shall not be greatly moved.
Psalm 62:2
Oops forgot: NKJV
Anna Elkhart IN
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
John 3:17 (NKJ)
Brittany Norfolk, NE-The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
Matthew 7:25 NIV
Jean ~ Lebanon, Tennessee
“Sing to the Lord a new song; Sing to the Lord, all the earth.”
Psalms 96:1 NASB
Emily Byrd; Baton Rouge, LA
“Find rest, O my soul in God alone;
my hope comes from him.
He alone is my rock and salvation;
he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.”
Psalm 62:5-6, NIV
Kim from Trenton, TX
Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been proved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
James 1:12 NKJV
Christy, Lima
…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6 (NIV)
RaeLeen – Greewood Indiana,
” Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?”
Isaiah 58:6 NIV
Kim, Franklinton, LA.
Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Psalms 119:105 ESV
Ruth Mott, Goose Creek, SC
The LORD himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.
Exodus 14:14 NLT
Liz Taylor, Washington DC
Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. (Colossians 2:6, 7 ESV)
Laura from Prairieville, LA
Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. Be self-controlled and alert. I Peter 5:7-8 NIV
But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. (1 Corinthians 2:9 KJV)
Lila, Salem, OR
Psalm 33:19 NIV
“…to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.”
Laura from Katy: Jeremiah 17:7. ” Blessed is the man who trusts in The Lord, whose confidence is in Him.” NIV
Colleen ~ Frisco, TX
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
Hebrews 11:1, NIV
Barbara, Prospect, KY: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,” 2 Timothy 3:16 (NIV).
Kathy French, Austin
“Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.” Proverbs 3:3-4
Lee from IN – Zephaniah 3:17 ESV
The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love, he will exult over you with loud singing.
Christie, Gray Court
A word spoken at the right time is like gold apples on a silver tray. Prov. 25:11 HCS
Caitlin, Gray Court, SC
“A word spoken at the right time is like gold apples on a silver tray.” Prov. 25:11 HCS
“A word spoken at the right time is like gold apples on a silver tray.” Prov. 25:11, HCS
Mindy from Austin, TX, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11, NIV.