The sin of Judah is written with an iron pen; with a diamond point it is engraved on the tablet of their hearts, and on the horns of their altars, while their children remember their altars and their sacred poles, beside every green tree, and on the high hills, on the mountains in the open country. Your wealth and all your treasures I will give for spoil as the price of your sin throughout all your territory. By your own act you shall lose the heritage that I gave you, and I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, for in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever.

Thus says the LORD: Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the LORD. They shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.

Blessed are those who trust in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the steam. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.

The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse – who can understand it? I the LORD test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings.

Jeremiah 17:1-10

Jeremiah said that his countrymen had become like dry shrubs in a desert rather than green trees by a river. He even said they had aroused the fire of God’s anger by trusting in man and departing from the LORD. For Christians today, it is life’s fiery trials that threaten to scorch our souls if we’re trusting in our own strength.

Father, forgive us for making ourselves dry and leafless. Without Your mercy, we would be consumed when the heat comes. Teach us to root ourselves in the river of Your sufficiency.

The fires of life will not destroy you

if you are watered by the River of Life.

Our Daily Bread – November 1, 2004