“The man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence indeed is the Lord, is blessed. He will be like a tree planted by water: it sends its roots out toward a stream, it doesn’t fear when heat comes and its foliage remains green. It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit.” – Jeremiah 17:7-8
If you’ve ever picked flowers and forgotten to get them into water quickly, I’m sure you’ve noticed how fast they die once separated from their roots. I remember on one particular day my fiancé, Geordan, left flowers on my car for me. He said they’d only been out there for a few minutes but by the time I got to them, two of the flowers had already wilted.
I couldn’t help but be reminded of the John 15:4 scripture when Jesus says ““I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” The flowers were the perfect illustration of how our lives look apart from God. When we’re grounded in Him and our roots are connected to Him, we flourish, but the moment we separate ourselves and decide we’re better off on our own, we stop producing fruit for Him. Things that once seemed to happen with ease, now become burdensome. Where we once were prosperous, we may find ourselves lacking.
As Christ followers, we must constantly realize our need for God and check in with Him daily to see what fruit He would have us to produce. When we do, we can be confident that we “will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit” like our focus scripture says. We’ll know that the one in us is greater than all the things that are going on around us, and by being grounded in God, we’ll be given all the strength we need to push on and live out our purpose.
Is there an area of your life where you have stopped producing fruit?
Action:
Ask yourself if you have cut God off from that area and if you have, pray that you will let Him back in so that you can produce fruit again.