“And all the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord. I bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree. Dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. I am the Lord, I have spoken, and I will do it.”
– Ezekiel 17:24
What a picture. What an image. You picture a tree that is high. God says, “I can make that tree low.” Picture a tree that’s low. And God is saying, “I can make that tree high.” Picture a green, flourishing tree. God says, “I can dry it up just like that.” And then picture a dry, struggling tree. He says, “I can make it flourish just like that. I am the Lord. I have spoken, and I will do it.”
There are so many things we can take away from just this image, but I want to encourage you and me today in one particular way. Our lives, your life, my life today is totally dependent on God. We can’t do anything apart from his help. And any success we have, like true success, is going to come from him. Anything good in our lives is going to come from him. And to the extent that we depend on ourselves, trust in ourselves, then we will miss out on what God alone can do in our lives.
Ezekiel 17:24 Points Us to the Words of Jesus
Just think about Jesus’ words, very similar imagery in John 15, “I’m the vine. You are branches. If a man remains in me and I and him, he will bear much fruit.” So the key to bearing fruit is remaining in Jesus. Trusting in God, seeking God with all your heart. Following Jesus, with everything in you. That’s the key to bearing fruit. Anything good in your life, flowing from his life in you.
He says, “Apart from me, you can do nothing.” So live like that today. Let’s say to God today, “God, we need you for anything good in our lives today.” I think about students in school. They can’t do anything good today apart from your grace in them. I think about all kinds of people in all kinds of different professions. We can’t do anything good apart from your grace in us.
You’re the author of every good gift. Parents today, there’s no way we can be good parents apart from your grace. There’s no way singles can be faithful singles. Husbands, wives, faithful husbands and wives. We can’t do this apart from your grace, your goodness in us. Our marriages won’t flourish, our singleness won’t flourish, our families won’t flourish, our churches won’t flourish if you don’t bring flourishing.
Total Dependence on Christ
God, we pray in total dependence on you as branches and a vine. We need you. We want you. And we fix our attention, our affections on you. And we pray that you’d fill us, that you would lead us, that you would guide us, that you would direct us, and that you would bear fruit through our lives today, we pray. God, as we pray for nations, people groups who have never heard the gospel, who are unreached today. We know they cannot flourish apart from relationship with you. They will perish for all of eternity apart from relationship with you.
God, we pray for the spread of the gospel to all the nations. We ask for that, God. We ask that you would do whatever you desire in our lives, in our families, in our churches, to cause the gospel to go to all the nations. That all the nations might flourish, that this picture that we read about in Revelation Chapter 22 of the leaves of the tree of life bringing healing to the nations. God, only you can do that. Through the gospel, we pray that you would help us to faithfully spread the gospel to the ends of the earth toward that end for the flourishing of the nations.
God, we pray, based on your word in Ezekiel 17:24 for flourishing in our lives, for flourishing in others’ lives, specifically among all the nations that can come only from remaining in you, Jesus. Trusting in you, following you, abiding in you. May it be so. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
