What Are You Trusting Now?

[S] Jeremiah 17:4-10; John 16:22 --
⁴And you will, even of yourself, let go of your inheritance
That I gave you;
And I will make you serve your enemies
In the land which you do not know;
For you have kindled a fire in My anger
Which will burn forever.
⁵Thus says the LORD,
"Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind
And makes flesh his strength,
And whose heart turns away from the LORD.
⁶"For he will be like a bush in the desert
And will not see when prosperity comes,
But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness,
A land of salt without inhabitant.
⁷"Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD
And whose trust is the LORD.
⁸"For he will be like a tree planted by the water,
That extends its roots by a stream
And will not fear when the heat comes;
But its leaves will be green,
And it will not be anxious in a year of drought
Nor cease to yield fruit.
⁹"The heart is more deceitful than all else
And is desperately sick;
Who can understand it?
¹⁰"I, the LORD, search the heart,
I test the mind,
Even to give to each man according to his ways,
According to the results of his deeds.
²²"Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.

[O] Verse 5 mentions cause of God's wrath/curse which is to trust in mankind and strength in flesh. When we turn away from God, we are asking for His wrath not necessarily because God showers down firestones from heaven but because we choose to live like the bush in the desert further away from the source of life. Have you seen a driver driving further away from the gas station into the deserted land when the car is about to run out gas? That would seem stupid and asking for trouble. That's what we are like when we turn away from God, who gives life to us, when we are running out of joy in life. We think we can generate this on our own but that's where we fall deep into the trap of the enemy because there is no way we will do that. In fact, it'll be more like falling deeper into the quicksand further immobilizing oneself. On the contrary (verses 7-8), trusting God is the way to tap into the source of life and joy. It's almost like watering the plant make it grow. Have you ever wondered how that works? How does the clear water generate this green plant, eventually blossoming into beautiful and colorful flowers? We can go into the analysis of how the soil has all the necessary nutrients and it gets soaked up by the root, etc. but all I want to observe now is that the same "magic" happens when we trust in the Lord (like watering the plant), the necessary spiritual nutrients around me gets soaked up by my spirit and then voila the joy happens in my life. And as John 16:22 says, that joy is here to stay.

[A] Instead of trying to generate the strength in my life on my own, trust God in all I do and think. That will please Him and He will provide the joy in my life. Don't seek joy from an external source but find it by trusting God first. Especially as we're about to start our first small group leaders training, I want to especially trust God and wait for His joy to fill us up.

[P] Dear God, here I am before You. I fully desire to trust You in the leadership of our small group ministry. I have surrendered to make it a successful one because the success comes from trusting You and that's where I along with other leaders want to start from. Please move us mightily with Your Holy Spirit starting tomorrow morning. I trust Your Holy name. Amen.