Jeremiah 17:-7-8(NLT)
“7 But blessed are those who trust in the LORD and have made the LORD their hope and confidence. 8 They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.”
If you are believing and trusting Heavenly Father to send the person you’re going to marry, don’t pay attention to what the studies say. Many of them suggest a rise in the percentage of women that have never been married. These same studies also indicate that an increasing number of women over 50 remain unmarried. What they don’t say, however, is whether they’ve factored in the many women that enjoy the single life and don’t desire marriage. It’s also probably a safe bet that most of the women factored into their studies are not personally acquainted with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Having a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ makes all the difference in an individual’s life. It shifts us completely out of the realm of limitations and into the realm of unlimited possibilities. Trusting in the Lord and placing our confidence in Him allows us to be quickened by His Holy Spirit.
The psalmist prayed in Psalm 119:40(KJV), “Behold, I have longed after thy precepts: quicken me in thy righteousness.” This verse tells us that the psalmist understood the immeasurable value of God’s Word. He knew that God’s Word is the Bread of Life, and it will direct us through any situation. He longed for God’s Word. He longed for its wisdom and understanding, because he knew that God’s wisdom and understanding unlocks doors. He knew that God’s Word can elevate us to levels of achievement and success in a way that nothing else can. So, he hungered for it because he understood it’s vast, uncompromising, and unyielding richness. He knew and wanted to be continually fed by God’s Word in its undeniable and miraculous way.
Not only did he understand that when we know better through studying God’s Word, we can then do better in life, the psalmist also prayed that God would quicken him in righteousness. This should be on the prayer list of every believer. To quicken is to make lively and become stirred up to the point of Christ-like faith and power. It’s to move ourselves from ambivalence to activation in the Spirit. This is possible not because of anything that you and I can make happen. It’s possible because of the supernatural favor of our God. He’s the One that can turn seemingly nothing into the most magnificent and fantastical blessing we could ever have imagined.
The world has a way of keeping people locked in and bound to its routines and systems. “Follow the masses” is its creed. It tries to keep our minds lowered way beneath the threshold of faith, so much so that millions upon millions become stuck in that realm of doubt and lies. Even for believers, the temptation to be safe in sameness holds their faith captive. Sadly, this happens to women over 50 at an alarming rate. We put off the opportunity to be clothed in the best and highest versions of ourselves because we’re led to believe we have no other option.
Ephesians 3:20(NLT) says, “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.” Our Heavenly Father deals in the exceedingly abundantly, but many us allow our years on this planet to leave us depleted of a lively faith. We’ve never exercised faith muscles to the point of receiving inwardly the Spirit’s directives and guidance. We don’t believe he’ll lead us to the treasure of blessings that God has in store for us. And because we’ve not experienced the closeness of God to this degree, we’re disappointed because we’ve bought into the lie that our options are limited to none.
We must get to the spiritual place of allowing ourselves to experience the exuberance of basking in God’s glory. It’s in this place that we experience the exceedingly abundantly. It blows the lid off the caps we’ve placed on ourselves and our lives. Jeremiah 17:7 tells us that we are blessed when we place all our confidence in God, because He cannot fail. We must make God our hope, because Proverbs 16:20 declares that whoever heeds His instruction will find success. Trusting in His plan for us makes us like a tree that is planted by the river. We’ll be continually replenished, we’ll never let our age keep us from producing fruit, and nothing will cause us to lose faith in what God will make possible in our lives. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Be Like a Tree Planted by the River”, written by Kim Times, edited by Reverend Fran Mack for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2022. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.