Jeremiah 17 contrasts the person who looks only at prosperity from a worldly perspective versus someone who puts his/her trust in God to deliver prosperity, or goodness, according to heaven’s perspec7ve:
5 Cursed is the one who trusts in human strength and the abilities of mere mortals.
His very heart strays from the Eternal.
6 He is like a like shrub in the desert that never grows;
he will see no good thing [that] comes his way.
He will live in a desert wasteland,
a barren land of salt where no one lives.
7 But blessed is the one who trusts in Me alone;
the Eternal will be his confidence.
8 He is like a tree planted by water,
sending out its roots beside the stream.
It does not fear the heat or even drought.
Its leaves stay green and its fruit is dependable, no matter what it faces. (The Voice)
Notice that Jeremiah says that anyone who puts him/her trust in God will be able to prosper even under extreme stress. “When we love Him and accept His invitation to live according to His plan”(Romans 8:28), God opens our eyes to see those small and not so small miracles of grace that he delivers at the perfect 7me and through the perfect channel, that steels our faith and allows us to make it through adversity with gratitude for what He has done. We are not like the one who, as Jeremiah describes in verses 5 and 6, trusts in human strength, and ends up disappointed in the outcome of the adversity with stunted spiritual faith (“like a little scrub in the desert that never grows”), and who never sees the good that God has worked out in our lives (“he will see no good thing [that] comes his way” Other versions say “prosperity instead of “good thing”).
How tragic is that--not being able to see the reality of God’s intervention in our life for the good? Such a person will never know what it is like to be “like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots beside the stream. It does not fear the heat or even drought. Its leaves stay green and its fruit is dependable, “no matter what it faces.” Prospering, not just surviving, during heat and drought, no matter how severe, is a reality for everyone who “trusts in Me [God] alone” (the Amplified Bible says “who believes and trusts in and relies on the Lord and whose hope and confident expectation is the Lord”). Everyone. By God’s grace, I became one of Jeremiah’s trees, because I learned in the many adversities of my health journey to put my trust in Him alone.
My comfort in my suffering is this:
Your promise preserves my life. Psalm 119:50
