Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water that sends out its roots by the stream and does not fear when heat comes for its leaves remain green and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.
– Jeremiah 17:7–8
What powerful language imagery from the very beginning. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord. And then I love this kind of parallel phrase, whose trust is the Lord.
Jeremiah 17:7–8 teaches us trusting God is how we flourish in our Christian life.
So think about your life today. Are you trusting in the Lord? And is your trust like you have entrusted everything in your life to the Lord? He is your trust. He is the one in whom you have placed your entire life. If so, you’re like a tree planted by water that sends out its roots by the stream.
Just picture this flourishing tree by the water. This is what it looks like to have the Lord as your trust. And then verse eight says, it does not fear when heat comes for its leaves remain green. Oh, don’t you want that to be a description of your life when hard days, months, and years come, you’re not afraid. Why? Because your trust is the Lord. Therefore, you have nothing to fear.
You know if the Lord is for you, nothing can stand against you. So you don’t fear when heat comes and you are not anxious in the year of drought, when it’s a dry season, you’re not anxious, you’re not worried. In fact, you do not cease to bear fruit. Oh, don’t you want to bear fruit in the hard seasons of life? It’s only possible when your trust is the Lord. So can we just pray for this kind of faith in our lives?
Jeremiah 17:7–8 encourages us to put all of our trust in God.
Oh God, we pray according to your Word, that you would make us like trees planted by water, sending out roots by the stream. We pray you would help us to trust in you, even right now. Oh God, we pray you are our trust. You are our hope. Lord, you are our joy, you are our strength. You are our peace. You are our life. God, you are our everything. You are our trust. So deliver us from fear.
God, I pray for every single person listening to this right now. I pray for freedom from all fear and from all worry, from anxiousness over anything that is happening in their lives. Anything that is happening in the world. God, we pray that as we walk through difficult, dry, even dark days, that we would not cease to bear fruit. Oh God, pray for that in my life and in all of our lives, God help us to bear fruit even when dark, hard, difficult days surround us because our trust is in you.
God, give us this kind of faith we pray, and not just for us. God, help us to spread the good news that you’re worthy of. All trusts. Help us to spread that good news to people around us today. God, help us to encourage others that there is a source of strength and hope and joy and life in you that is like no other. Help us to lead others to freedom from fear and freedom from worry because their trust is in you.
Prayer for the Israeli Jewish People
And God, we pray the same for 5 million Israeli Jewish men and women and children, God, for this people group who knows so much about you in the Old Testament but doesn’t know about the truth of Jesus, whose life and death and resurrection makes all of these things possible. God, we pray for the spread of the gospel among Israeli Jewish people, especially amidst war and challenges that they have walked through are walking through even now. God, please draw them to trust in Jesus as the Lord. We pray all of this in light of your Word, Jeremiah 17:7–8, which we love in his name, 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.
