Are You Planted Firmly on the SPOT?

Are You Planted Firmly on the SPOT?
"But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in Him. He 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 17:7,8

Living in Oklahoma, we know what those violent winds, lightning, and even ice can do to a tree. The winds threaten to uproot the tree and carry it away. The lightning and the ice breaks off branches. And when the storm is over, whether it’s a summer storm or a winter ice storm, things can look quite hopeless for that tree.

Yet, if we look closer; the same storm that opened crevices in the earth around the trunk of the tree helped the roots go deeper. And now, the tree has access to new, deeper sources of nutrition and water. And it has been purged of all its dead branches. We witnessed that with a tall tree in our own yard. When the winter’s ice storm stripped the tree of so many of its largest branches, it looked as if that tree would surely die, but we determined to wait, and sure enough, that tree returned to full foliage and even more beautiful than before.

Metamorphically speaking, if we would be like those trees that crave being planted by God's river of life, we, too, would weather the "faith challenging" storms that come to us. Those opposing winds can sure blow hard against us -- even shaking us violently. We even wonder if we'll even make it another day. But when we stand firmly in our faith, trusting in the Lord, with our confidence in Him, then we'll be like that tree that is planted by the water. We won't need to fear. We'll embrace the winds, because we'll know they come to only make us stronger. Just like the tree's roots that run deep, our "faith" root system will run deep and we'll be nourished and strengthened to stay STANDING on the SPOT! Tough times don't last....but tough trees do!

In my case, the "Donna tree" is soon to be physically transplanted to a whole new city and state, but it doesn't depend on where that will be, because my root system is "non-transplantable". It is FIXED on the SPOT where it was planted in the first place. This tree will never lose touch with the source of its strength. This tree trusts in the Lord and my confidence -- in the storms and in the sunshine -- is in Him!