The Stick

Jeremiah 17:7,8 For those who trust in the Lord will be blessed. They know that the Lord will do what he says. They will be strong like trees planted near a stream that send out roots to the water. They have nothing to fear when the days get hot. Their leaves are always green. They never worry, even in a year that has no rain. They always produce fruit.

Life is full of seasons, and not each season is going to be one that we enjoy. We know that, in theory at least, but when we’re in the middle of one of those deep, dark, cold winters of life, it’s hard to remember that spring is just around the corner.

A few years ago, my wife and I bought a stick. Well, actually it was a small Chinese tallowwood tree with those beautiful, pale green, heart-shaped leaves that turn a stunning gold during autumn.

But it was winter when we bought it, so this tree looked like a stick about two feet high. Now they told us at the nursery it was just what we wanted, but honestly at that point it could have been pretty much anything.

Today though, it’s a stunningly beautiful tree about 15 feet high and 10 feet round, just like they promised; tall, healthy, beautiful and growing.

I think back to that stick and just shake my head – how did that happen? God only knows.

In fact, when you look around, that process is very much part of His plan. When things are tall, healthy, beautiful and growing they have life pulsing through them. And that’s God’s plan for you as well.

Jeremiah 17:7,8 For those who trust in the Lord will be blessed. They know that the Lord will do what he says. They will be strong like trees planted near a stream that send out roots to the water. They have nothing to fear when the days get hot. Their leaves are always green. They never worry, even in a year that has no rain. They always produce fruit.

There will be seasons when you may feel and look like a stick. During those times, trust in the Lord and you will be blessed. You will become that strong, beautiful, resilient tree, with His life pulsing through you.

That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.

‹ Previous Next ›

Blessed by this devotion?

Share it with a friend!

Dig Deeper

Respond

Request Prayer

Accept Jesus

Berni Dymet

Thank you for your encouragement Myrna. Bless you! Berni@CW

Berni Dymet

Hang in there John. God’s help is on the way and His timing is always perfect. Berni@CW

Henry Davies

Dear Berni, Thanks for God’s Word Fresh . It just helps us appreciate how blessed we are . I pray for those in the ...

Vivian

Very inspiring. This is the message you print and paste on the wall so when the enemy comes with his deceit you give ...

Henry Davies

Dear Berni, Thanks for God’s Word Fresh . It just helps us appreciate how blessed we are . I pray for those in the ...

Paulette Barnett

I truly love to receive God’s words of encouragement

John Bougas

Hi there! Thank you for this great truth and message. I am feeling like that “dry stick” right now and ...

Michael Adams

I am one of the lucky few that God took me when I was just a sprout and he taught me and Nurtured Me as I grew. Giving ...

I am one of the lucky few that God took me when I was just a sprout and he taught me and Nurtured Me as I grew. Giving me benefit in a world that all odds had been stacked against me. Even the church cast me aside saying I was to small even though I was a year or 2 years old than some of the other. Yet my grandmother kept me from straying away from the path that God had laid before me. As I said earlier growing up from my birth of the mid 50s North Carolina in a world that should have been unfair for me yet it was not for it was like the branch that sprouted out a gold leaf, For I was a Minority that had as a child white boy privilege to which saw me to who I was not my skin color. You know sometime in life it who you truly are in the inside that of people see in you of how you see yourself can be how people perceive you which can be more or just important in a world that is stacked against you, Maybe it more about your own belief of your perception on living in a world that you see stacked against you instead of changing your own point of view to move beyond that belief of a world stacked against you by changing people perception of you, that you are just another person made by God n Christ and the world we all exist in one in the same. Then people will see you as you are and judge you less as the tree that give fruits. God give us the pathway to follow but it’s how we walk that pathway that determine our Fate of the perception that we show other. My grandmother always told me how you truly from the heart treat others you will find that others from the heart will treat you.
If you walk around being hateful then all you get is people being hateful to you. People who truly love God that know matter what you think of them that your perception can either put God light out or let iGod brightness shine through, for God brightness will always overpowered when it sees perception of goodness. As I have as I have sat at the dinner table in the house of the people who was said to have the world stacked against me, yet here I was being greeted by who I am as a person not who I was as a race of color. We have to learn within ourselves to get along before we can expect other to except us as an equal.

Michael Huie

We certainly needed your message today, with this pandemic scaring everybody.

Leonard Carroll

Thanks, Berni. I’m a beautiful, healthy, tall heterosexual male. God bless you and your beautiful wife. Leonard ...