Planted in God

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Our reading, titled Planted in God, was written by Patricia Rabin. The wind is tossing the lilacs. With that opening line of her springtime poem, May, poet Sarah Teasdale captured a vision of lilac bushes waving in gusty breezes. But Teasdale was lamenting a lost love, and her poem soon turned sorrowful. Our backyard lilacs also encountered a challenge.

After having their most lush and beautiful season, they faced the acts of a hard-working lawn man who trimmed every bush, chopping them to stubs. I cried. Then, three years later, after barren branches, a bout of powdery mildew, and my faithless plan to dig them up, our long-suffering lilacs rebounded. They just needed time, and I simply needed to wait for what I couldn't see. The Bible tells of many people who waited by faith despite adversity. Noah waited for delayed rain. Caleb waited 40 years to live in the Promised Land. Rebecca waited 20 years to conceive a child. Jacob waited seven years to marry Rachel. Simeon waited and waited to see the baby Jesus.

Their patience was rewarded. In contrast, those who look to humans will be like a bush in the wastelands, says Jeremiah 17 and 6. Poet Teasdale ended her verse in such gloom. I go a wintry way, she concluded, but blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, rejoiced Jeremiah. They will be like a tree planted by the water. The trustings stay planted in God, the one who walks with us through the joys and adversities of life.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Jeremiah chapter 17 verses 5 through 8. This is what the Lord says, Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the Lord. That person will be like a bush in the wastelands. They will not see prosperity when it comes. They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.

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. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, when our life feels barren or buffeted by stiff winds, please grow our trust in You by planting us deeper in Your steadying love. Thank You, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening today. My name is Joyce Dinkins, and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.