Blessed Is The One

Jeremiah 17:5-8

In Christians and non Christians alike, I see so much unrest.  There is agitation, fear, and anxiety about the direction our world is headed.  Much of this unrest is caused by the fact that we are placing our faith in parties and politicians to fix our problems.  Sure, sometimes someone will share a campaign-looking poster that says “Jesus - 2024” but many times if you wait long enough there they go again either promoting their candidate, or downing the other candidate.  More than that, people often say, “I don’t know if we can handle 4 more years of…”.  They betray their heart and exactly where their faith lies. They are trusting in an election to fix everything.

This is what the Lord says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the Lord. That person will be like a bush in the wastelands; they will not see prosperity when it comes. They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.  “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water  that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes;  its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

Jeremiah 17:5-8

This passage begins with, “Cursed in the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the LORD”.  The point here is that the individual is placing their faith in people.  This is faith that has turned away from God.  Within the context of Jeremiah, the people had turned away from God and they were trusting in Manasseh and the false prophets to protect them from their enemies and to provide for them.  The problem they had to face was that they were in a state of unrest.  They did not have peace.

The next segment says, “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water  that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes;  its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”  While the people of Judah were living in unrest, Jeremiah was the opposite.  His trust was in the Lord and he was at rest.  The people all around Him wanted to kill him, but he was at rest.  They rejected his preaching, but he was at rest.  He was rooted in God.  He was sustained by God’s word.  He was protected by God.  

With all of the rain we received recently, I noticed the water up in the branches of the trees along the rivers.  The waters ran high.  The waters ran wide.  The waters ran swift.  Yet, the trees stood. How could they withstand all of this pressure?  Their roots are deep.  They were anchored in something that could withstand the waters.  If you are trusting in people, you will get swept away in the turmoil of life.  If you trust in God, that which destroys others will be a source of nourishment to you.  You will be able to stand strong, not because of you, but because of the one you are anchored in.