How To Be Blessed

⁵ 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. ⁶ 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. ⁷ “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. ⁸ 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.” Jeremiah 17:5–8 (NIV)

Here, we see two scenarios from nature:

1. A bush in the wasteland: salty soil where nothing can thrive and where no one lives. God calls this cursed. 
2. A tree planted by the water: leaves are always green and it produces as abundance of fruit. This is the blessed life. This is the life that thrives, not just survives. 

The Unblessed Life

Let’s look at the first one–this is the life we want to avoid. God can’t just bless any kind of life. The bush in the wasteland is cursed! Why can’t God bless it?

The issue is a matter of trust. Instead of trusting in God, the person in this metaphor trusts in human strength. Their heart has turned away from God. 

Do you let troubles turn you away from God? When things happen that you don’t understand, do you lean into God all the more, or do you turn away and start looking for other sources of strength and help? Do you start just relying on yourself? Do you have the mindset, “If God’s not going to take care of this situation, I don’t need him!”?

The issue is who or what you trust in your heart. The results of living like this person are outlined in verse 6b: “They will not see prosperity when it comes.” 

FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out)

Prosperity WILL come! Don’t you hate missing out on blessing? Or maybe you just hate missing out on anything– maybe you have a FOMO problem.

Recently, my wife and I went to dinner with another couple in the church. At some point, I decided to tell a story about going to lunch with a pastor in the area.

Here’s the story: We went to a barbecue place, and both ordered the same thing. When we sat at our tables, my pastor friend looked at his dish, he looked at my dish, he looked back at his dish, and then he said, “You got more than me!” He then called over a server and said, “He got more than me!” and had the server bring him some more barbecue! Who does that? Funny story, right? 

So back to the dinner with this other couple. The other guy and I ordered exactly the same thing–a nice beef dish. After a little while, the food came out. The two ladies were served what they ordered, and the other guy got his order–but the waitress said, “There was a problem with your dish, and they have to redo it.”

I looked at my friend’s dish and saw it was a huge serving that looked fantastic and I thought, “Well, I have something to look forward to.” No problem at all. At least, until my dish came out. And here was the problem: It was, literally, half of what the other guy got! I was missing out! And guess what I did. I told the server, “He got more than me!” And of course, in light of the story I had just told about my pastor friend, everybody had a good laugh. We hate to miss out! 

If we don’t depend on God and have hearts that are connected to him, we’re going to miss out on the day of prosperity. The other guy is going to get a double portion, and you will miss out. Don’t miss out! I know comparison is a problem, but pay attention to what the Lord says here: Prosperity will come, but you’ll miss out. It’s worse than getting a little less barbecue, or less beef. We don’t have to keep up with the Joneses, but when God is pouring out blessings and favor, prosperity in whatever form Jeremiah includes, we want to get in on it.

If we haven’t sent out roots toward God, we will miss out!

You will be like a bush in the wastelands, parched, salt land “where no one lives”: you are disconnected from God and disconnected from people. But there is an alternative.

The Life God Blesses

⁷ “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.” Jeremiah 17:7 (NIV)

Trust and confidence in the Lord are opposed to trusting in human strength, in the flesh. 

Instead of missing out on prosperity when it comes, verse 8 has the result:

⁸ “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.” Jeremiah 17:8 (NIV)

Like a tree planted by the water, the one who trusts in God:

1. Does not fear, has no worries
2. Never fails to bear fruit; always has green leaves

In verse 8, it says that the heat and the drought will come. A life of trust in God does NOT mean that seasons of drought will never come. You will go through dry periods–perhaps spiritually, perhaps emotionally. What is a drought? It’s a season of not enough water. There will be seasons of not enough. But you will not fear, you will not have worries. 

Be Planted

We get to choose which one we are! A tree “planted.” There’s intentionality there. 

The tree sends out its roots. We send out roots toward God, the source of living water. Turn your heart to the Lord. Be rooted in him, in the things of God. Where are you sending out your roots? As we saw, the bush in the wasteland represents the person who turns to human strength or whose heart turns away from God. The life God blesses is the one who trusts in God, who has confidence in God, and who sends out roots to the water. 

So, how do you know if you are trusting in human strength, or you are trusting in God? Does that mean we never accept help from people? Or we never help ourselves? No, the issue is where we place our trust — where do our hearts turn? Where are we rooted?

God Works Through People

The parable of the two boats and the helicopter has been scientifically proven to have been used in at least one sermon in every church in America. Just kidding! It is pretty popular, but I am going to share it with you here anyway.

There once was a man who lived in a flood zone. One day came the news, “A storm is coming! Evacuate the area!” But the man did not leave. He said “My trust is in God, he will save me.” The floodwaters began to rise, and a neighbor riding by on an ATV stopped, and urged him: “Come with me! The flood is coming!” But the man said, “My trust is in God, he will save me,” and he did not go. As the water rose higher, he climbed to the second story of his house. Out of the window, he saw a friend riding by in a motorboat. The friend stopped and said “Come with me! The flood is still rising!” But the man said “My trust is in God, he will save me,” and he did not go.

Finally, as his home was filled with the floodwaters, the man was forced to climb onto the roof of his house. There was a helicopter sent out to find survivors, and they lowered a ladder to him. “Jump on! Come with us!” shouted the rescue team. But the man responded, “My trust is in God, he will save me!” and he did not go.

Eventually, the man perished in the flood. When he reached heaven’s gates, St. Peter seemed surprised to see him, and exclaimed, “I did not expect to see you here today!” He answered, “I didn’t expect to be here myself! I thought that God would rescue me.”

“Yes,” said St. Peter, scratching his head, “he usually sends a boat or a helicopter or something!”

Recognize God’s Hand

The point of this story is that we want to recognize God’s hand, regardless of how he sends it. Our trust is in him! 

God works through people. He works through us to bless others, he works through others to bless us. He works through medicine, and he gives people ideas and concepts so that when we act on them, we achieve what we never could have achieved left to our own devices. The temptation, however, is to begin to turn our hearts away from the Lord. Then we begin to depend on our own ingenuity, our own strength.

When we begin to depend on ourselves, prayer or crying out to the Lord, is no longer our first thought when we are in trouble. I always hated for our daughters suffer with any kind of sickness, but I always delighted in the fact that their first thought was, “Daddy, pray for me, I don’t feel well.” They still ask me for prayer, though it looks a bit different now. Like a group text message to our family, “Please pray, the baby is sick” or whatever the need might be. This week the family chat was, “Ellie’s cat got out Tuesday and is still missing. Pray she comes home!” And I do pray that she comes home.

The Failure of the Bush

The bush in the wasteland fails to recognize prosperity when it comes. However, the tree planted by the water endures drought when it comes! The tree planted by the water doesn’t avoid drought; the tree planted by the water is prepared for the drought that WILL come. It’s prepared because it has sent out roots to the source of life. 

My first year of seminary, especially the first semester, I struggled through financially. I was just barely making it on my veteran’s educational benefits and some savings from summer. I had $2 a day for food–not much, even in the 1980s. Night after night, I would sit down for a meal of cornbread and beans, and my heart would just rise up to the Lord in profound gratitude. One evening a classmate stopped by just as I was sitting at the table. He looked at my plate and his heart was moved with compassion. He said, “I’m so sorry, why don’t you come over to my apartment for dinner.” I appreciated the invitation, but my response was, “Don’t feel sorry for me, God is taking care of me!” His provision was so real!

My grandmother, who was probably living below the poverty level, felt led by God to send me $5 a month. I felt guilty taking it, but there were some months that that $5 came when I had nothing left, and I was made humbly thankful for the provision of the Lord. The reality was, I was prospering. I was being planted like a tree by the water. I was sending out roots by the stream of the Lord. 

In the drought, the tree remains green.

In prosperity, the bush remains dry.

When do we know we’re trusting in “flesh” and not in God?

• When we haven’t sought God in prayer
• When it goes against the Bible, the Word of God
• When it involves moral compromise
• When it robs God of the praise and glory
• When God is not acknowledged as the source
• When it feeds our pride
• When it is a matter of self-sufficiency and not trusting in God

You were created to be in relationship with God! Without that connection, we are a dried up bush in the wasteland, even when prosperity comes our way. With that connection, we remain alive and fruitful, even in a year of drought, when times are bad and we face challenges. There is something in you that wants to send out roots toward God’s water of life. That’s the essence of revival. That’s the essence of coming to God for salvation. 

Check out this message and others on the podcast at edcrenshaw.com/podcast!