Verdant Tree or Desert Shrub | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: Verdant Tree or Desert Shrub | Previous Challenge Entry
By Jennifer Liang
01/26/17
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From the time I was a little girl my dad would quote Jeremiah 17:9 often. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” (KJV) he would say. I learned quickly that it was his way of saying that we needed to be careful what we feed our minds and hearts on a daily basis. It is much easier to let things go instead of trudging uphill to surround ourselves with what is right. It is a lesson I am still working on many years later. To this day I struggle with watching movies instead of spending time in the Word. What kind of example am I leaving for my children?

Now let us put that single verse in context.

Thus says the Lord: ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in man and
makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.
He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good
come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.’

‘Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the
Lord. He is like a tree 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.’

‘The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick;
who can understand it? I the Lord search the heart and test
the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to
the fruit of his deeds.’ (Jeremiah 17:5-10 ESV)

This seems to be pretty clear. If I trust in the flesh I am like a shrub in the wilderness. No good can ever come from that. On the other hand, if I trust in God I am a tree. I don’t have to fear what is to come, even if it is a period of dryness, because my roots go deep. I remain green and fruitful because I know where the source of my life is.

When God tells me that the heart is ‘deceitful’ and ‘desperately wicked’, He also informs me that ‘according to the fruit of his deeds’ man will be given. Trees naturally have more fruit than shrubs. As a tree, if my roots go deep in Him then I will be bearing fruit. And that fruit bearing will be never ceasing. I don’t know about you but I know that blessings are better than curses and that means that it is better to be a tree than a shrub.

Yes, because of my fallen nature, my heart has a tendency to want to go the easy route. But nobody wins that way. It is when I fight the uphill battle that I will be assured of being a verdant oasis in the desert. Heat may come but my leaves remain green. I am alive. That is a promise from the Word. What an encouragement. May I be that tree the Lord blesses.

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