A Tree Planted by the Waters

I seem to be having difficulty sitting myself down to write these days. The last couple of days I have been on the verge of allowing myself to dip into a kind of depression...mostly because of the news on the TV this week...so many horrific things happening in our world...so difficult to comprehend how or why people do the things they do.  Depression, mental illness, anger, vengeance, jealousy, unforgiveness...all these attitudes and illnesses, left unchecked, can lead to such horror and terror.

Jeremiah 17:9-10 says:

"The heart is deceitful above all things,

and desperately wicked;

Who can know it?

I, the Lord, search the heart, 

I test the mind,

even to give every man

according to his ways,

according the fruit of his doings."

(Photos taken in April, 2012, on the banks of the Ocklawaha River)

I want to be like this man (woman) in Jeremiah 17:7-8: 

 "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord...and whose hope is the Lord."

  I want to be "like that tree planted by the waters, 

which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit."

Jeremiah goes on to say in verse 12-13:

"A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.

O Lord, the hope of Israel,

All who forsake You shall be ashamed."

God Says in response to Jeremiah in verse 13:

"Those who depart from Me shall be written in the earth,

because they have forsaken the Lord,

the fountain of living waters."

Verse 14:

"Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed;

Save me, and I shall be saved,

for YOU ARE my praise."

I love these little exercises in working through feelings of grief, depression, and/or fear.  When we begin to succumb to such feelings, it is always expedient to get into God's Word and find the pathway to praise and thanksgiving.  I know I can't stay down for long when I look UP to heaven. How about you?  Need some encouraging words tonight?  There is no better place to look than right here in God's Word.

"May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble;

May the name of the God of Jacob defend you;

May He send you help from the sanctuary,

and strengthen you out of Zion;

May He remember all your offerings,

and accept your burnt sacrifice.

May He grant you according to your heart's desire,

and fulfill all your purpose.

We will rejoice in your salvation,

and in the Name of our God 

we will set up our banners!

May the Lord fulfill all your petitions.

Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed;

He will answer him from His holy heaven

with the saving strength of His right hand.

Some trust in chariots,

and some in horses;

But we will remember the name of the Lord our God."

Psalm 20:1-7

AMEN!