We all want to live a blessed life, but do we know what leads to the blessing?
Jeremiah 17:7 (NIV), “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.”
Blessing comes when we trust in the Lord. So, what does it mean to trust in the Lord? To have confidence in him?
It can be easy to say I trust God, but it is much harder to live out our confidence in him when we are faced with the challenges of life.
In life, we are faced with many scenarios where we need to trust other people. It starts young when you are tasked with completing a group project in middle school. Once those group projects start, they never seem to go away. They show up in college, the work place, marriage, family, and even church. Group projects are very challenging because they force you to work with other people, causing you to have to share your opinions and ideas, but also relinquish control. When working with others, you also have to trust that they are going to do what they said they would do. And then, you have to be confident that they will do it well and on time. Working with others can be fun, so long as you get along with the members of your group, but trusting others to come through is a challenge!
To have complete confidence in someone is an assurance that they will show up on time, that they will complete the work that they said they would, and that they will complete it with quality. Can you imagine having Jesus in your group for a project? If Jesus sat down with me and the rest of my group, I think I would feel pretty confident in his ability to come through on his part of the project. I wouldn’t even need to know what he did until the due date because I could be sure that it was quality and well done.
This illustration helps me to know what it looks like to trust God. Trusting in God means that I believe he will work everything together for my good (Romans 8:28), and that he will complete the good work he said he would (Philippians 1:6).
Let’s read Jeremiah 17:7-8 (NIV):
“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.”
There is no season that we cannot trust God. As the verse says, the one who trusts in the Lord is like a tree planted by the water. God is the stream of living water, giving us life even in a dry season. There are no worries in a year of drought. Even when resources are scarce, God provides. We do not need to fear in a year of drought because God promises that even in that time, we will continue to bear fruit. We will have all we need and we will prosper.
God is working for me and intervening on my behalf. He is the one who created this world, so he is not limited to its system. In John 4:14 (NIV), Jesus speaks of the living water: “but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” This New Testament verse shows the continuation of Jeremiah’s promise. The Holy Spirit in us is a well of living water that never runs out. If we continue to draw from the living water, it will always be there for us and it will never run dry. However, if we do not draw from the living water by confidently trusting in the Lord, we can dry up. If you are feeling dry today, I encourage you to put your trust in the Lord. Have confidence that God is still working in your situation and allow God to give you peace for the process of working all things together for your good. Set your mind on remembering all the good things that God has already done for you, and how he has come through for you in the past.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for your living water that supplies my life in every season. I put my trust in you today, confident that you are doing a good work in me and in my life circumstances. Thank you for working on my behalf. Amen.