But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and has made the Lord his hope and confidence. He is like a tree planted along a riverbank, with its roots reaching deep into the water—a tree not bothered by the heat nor worried by long months of drought. Its leaves stay green, and it goes right on producing all its luscious fruit. Jeremiah 17:7-8 (L.B.)
It’s hot in Houston.
After a remarkably cold winter, it is downright hot now. 96 degrees as we swam yesterday afternoon.
And until the recent monsoon, we were in the midst of a serious drought too. My husband’s ranch in South Texas is still in the thick of it. The grass withers and dries up. The cows struggle to find enough food. The water evaporates. There’s not a thing we can do about it. The weather is completely out of our control.
So is life much of the time. You and I can’t control the economy. We have no power over the changes in political and public opinion. We can’t stop a global war or a personal health crisis. We can’t rewind the toppling of a world leader or our own failures. We can’t make it rain water or rain money.
Yet, those are the places we most frequently place our confidence. We place our confidence in politics or a promotion. We put all our eggs in the relationship basket or in global reconciliation. We count on money, jobs, family, health, success, freedom, and all sorts of other variables.
Then the drought comes.
The rug is pulled out from underneath us and our confidence is lost. Our hope is shattered and we don’t know how to rebuild.
What if….
We put our confidence in the Lord and our hope in Him?
Jeremiah says we would be like a tree unaffected in the midst of a drought – one that “goes right on producing all its luscious fruit.”
Paul says, I have every right to have confidence in things of the flesh, but I consider it all loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing my Lord. (Philippians 3)
I do it the wrong way too often. I love the accolades and awards. I am a big fan of new jobs and promotions and success in the eyes of my peers. But when I rely on those things that change or disappoint or I fail to achieve, I see myself through a broken lens. I don’t root my confidence in God, in the unchanging perspective of how He sees me, and my confidence disappears.
I’m learning to do it differently.
Because He has a plan and He knows what’s ahead and I will put my confidence in Him.
Where does your confidence come from?
What if you could find a place where your confidence would be so rooted and your hope so constant that regardless of your drought-ridden circumstances you thrived?
You can.
For the Lord is the great God…
In his hand are the depths of the earth.
Psalm 95