Jeremiah 17:7 - Trusting in Man or God?
Jer.17:7; Trusting in Man or God?
Jer 17:7 (KJV) Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD,
and whose hope the LORD is.
Jer 17:7 (AMP) [Most] blessed is the man who believes in,
trusts in, and relies on the Lord, and whose hope and confidence the
Lord is.
Jer 17:7 (Gibbs) Most blessed is the one who believes in,
trusts in, and relies on the Lord, and whose hope and confidence are in
Him.
Trusts . . . confidence. The same Hebrew root underlies both
words. [NIV SB]
17:5-8 Two kinds of people are contrasted here: those who trust
in human beings and those who trust in the Lord. The people of
Judah were trusting in false gods and military alliances instead of
God, and thus they were barren and unfruitful. In contrast, those who
trust in the Lord flourish like trees planted by water (see Psalm 1).
In times of trouble, those who trust in human beings will be
impoverished and spiritually weak, so they will have no strength to draw on.
But those who trust in the Lord will have abundant strength, not
only for their own needs, but even for the needs of others. Are you
satisfied with being unfruitful, or do you, like a well-watered tree, have
strength for the time of crisis and even some to share as you bear fruit
for the Lord? [Life Application SB]
HOPE - Jeremiah 17:1-14
We may have learned a long time ago that hoping only brings
disappointment. Our hopes were dashed. The promises we believed were broken. We
were left feeling like fools for ever hoping in the first place. But
perhaps we were devastated because we put our hope in the wrong place.
"The Lord says: Cursed is the man who puts his trust in mortal
man and turns his heart away from God. He is like a stunted shrub in
the desert, with no hope for the future; he lives on the
salt-encrusted plains in the barren wilderness; good times pass him by forever.
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
17:5-8).
Turning our life over to God includes placing our hope in him,
even if people have disappointed us. When we place all of our hope in
other people, it's like expecting a tree to flourish in a barren
desert. Our thirst continues, and they are unable to satisfy our deepest
needs. Placing our hope in God changes everything. Jesus said, "The
water I give ... becomes a perpetual spring within them, watering them
forever with eternal life" (John 4:14). When our hope is in God, and our
life is in his care, we are sustained when we otherwise would be
devastated. [Life Recovery SB]
17:5-6 In recovery, it is often tempting to trust someone who
claims to speak for God, but here we are reminded that God alone is
worthy of our trust. Many contemporary recovery programs do not assume
our need to trust and obey God and his Word. Such a program can be
dangerous, causing us to place our trust in people or activities that have
no real power to deliver. We need to be sure we adhere to godly
wisdom, not one individual's distortion of it. The analogy of the
stunted shrub accurately describes what it feels like for us to live
without nourishment from God. [Life Recovery SB]
Delusions of Grandeur; Jeremiah 17:9-10; step 1,7
An old fable tells the story of a proud lion who was convinced
he was the sovereign lord of all he surveyed. He strutted around
the jungle asking, "Who is the king of the jungle?" The little mouse
answered, "You are, sir," and the donkey said, "You are, sir." So did the
monkeys, deer and hippos. When the lion roared his question to the
elephant, the elephant wrapped his trunk around the lion, whirled him
about his head and crashed him into a tree. The lion got up, dizzy and
dazed, and wobbled back to the elephant and said, "You don't have to
get sore just because you don't know the right answer."
Isn't that just like us? We are sure we are in control. We are
certain we are the king of our jungle. We insist on our delusions of
grandeur even when we are thrown down and crushed. We rationalize,
excuse, deny - even forget - the truth. Finally we "hit bottom" and meet
our "moment of truth." Then the reality of our sickness becomes all
too obvious. That's when the truth of the First Step shines like a
lamp on our path: "We admitted that we were powerless."
Christ came "to testify to the truth," the truth about you and
me. We desperately need a new king, a new sovereign, a new Lord, a
new life. Our healing begins in the spirit of this old hymn:
Redeemer, come! I open wide
My heart to thee; here, Lord, abide!
Let me thy inner presence feel:
Thy grace and love in me reveal.
So come, my sovereign; enter in!
Let new and nobler life begin. by A. Philip Parham
Prayer: Help me, Lord, to no longer be deluded about who's
really in charge of my life. Open my heart to receive your kingship and
begin a new and noble life in you. [Life Recovery Devotional SB]
Blessings in Troubled Times
After being battered all day by a hot south wind, the squash
vines and tomato plants in our garden drooped in the fading light.
They practically cried out for water from the sprinkler. But the
trees in the yard were green and flourishing, though they required far
more water than the squash and tomatoes. The deep roots of the trees
found a hidden source of water far below the surface where the garden
plants struggled. Like those trees, people who trust in the Lord are
not at the mercy of surface circumstances because we have deep roots
to our eternal Source. [Quiet Time SB]
Psalm 34:8 (KJV) O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed
is the man that trusteth in him.
Isaiah 26:3-4 (KJV) Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose
mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. [4] Trust ye in
the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength:
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