Like a Tree

Every time I read the following passage, I long to be like this tree...

"Blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they go right on producing delicious fruit." - Jeremiah 17:7-8 (NLT)

I'm at a point in my life where things are good. No major concerns or worries. But I know it's only a matter of time. In this life there will be trouble. So that's why I want to invest energy in deepening my roots. I want to be able to stand strong when the heat is turned up. I want to be confident and not worry when it seems that God is distant. And no matter what happens, I want my life to produce delicious fruit.

Sometimes the fruit I produce now is rotten...my kids could tell you that. They test me like nothing else ever has. It's probably a good indication that I'm not bringing in enough nourishment. Sometimes I feel like my roots are sitting in the water, but not soaking it up. We can read and hear so much, but is it changing us? Are we letting it soak in?

Or maybe I just expect change to happen too fast. I want to be a new woman overnight! But trees take time to grow. Lots of time. So I will just hold onto this vision and be confident that God can and will grow me into this beautiful tree.

Spiritual Growth

I just got this email devotion today by Rick Warren. It seemed to be a good follow-up to my last blog post...

Millions of Christians have grown older without ever growing up; they act as though spiritual growth is automatic. They may have a plan to save for retirement. They may have a plan for sending their kids to college. But they don’t have a strategy for enriching their souls. They leave the single most important facet of human existence to chance!

But a soul doesn’t automatically grow to maturity any more than a baby automatically grows to physical maturity. You need to have a plan for feeding, exercise, education – and especially potty training – if a child is going to grow up healthy, strong, and mature.

A baby left on its own withers and dies. The same thing is true of your soul. Our world is full of people who have grown older but are still babies when it comes to spiritual maturity.

Spiritual growth is not automatic even for people who have opened their hearts to Christ. The writer of Hebrews sadly noted, “You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong” (Hebrews 5:12-14 NLT).

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