Friday June 26, 2009 HOW'S YOUR TREE?
"This is what the LORD says: Cursed is the person who trusts humans, who makes flesh and blood his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD. He will be like a bush in the wilderness. He will not see when something good comes. He will live in the dry places in the desert, in a salty land where no one can live. Blessed is the person who trusts the LORD. The LORD will be his confidence. He will be like a tree that is planted by water. It will send its roots down to a stream. It will not be afraid in the heat of summer. Its leaves will turn green. It will not be anxious during droughts. It will not stop producing fruit. "The human mind is the most deceitful of all things. It is incurable. No one can understand how deceitful it is. I, the LORD, search minds and test hearts. I will reward each person for what he has done. I will reward him for the results of his actions." Jeremiah 17:5-10 Decisions, decisions, decisions, we all have them; some of us have no problem making them, but others? Well, I have a real difficult time with decision making. I want to trust God implicitly, but. do you feel like that a lot? When I first really understood today's scripture I remember just sitting and reading it over and over and over in shock, thinking to myself, "How can our hearts be desperately wicked? Yet, they are, until we genuinely release our will over to the Lord and allow Him to recreate us. At least I know mine was, and there was a point several years ago where I almost reached that point again, but the power of His Holy Spirit reached into my soul and breathed new life into me. We must learn the difference between empathy and sympathy when it comes to matters of the heart, especially when we are doing ministry or we can truly make mistakes because our hearts can be deceived. What we need in ministry is empathy - not sympathy. Empathy stands on the side of the ditch and offers a hand up, while sympathy gets down in the ditch and often gets stuck in the ditch too. The Lord pointed this out to me during a very special time of ministry and showed me that as long as we keep on keeping on with what He told us to do, not listening to our "deceitful and wicked hearts" we will be like the mighty trees mentioned in today's scripture, offering fruit in due season and shelter when needed. How's your tree? Father, You alone are Holy and Pure. You alone deserve all of our attention and time. You alone deserve our loyal and love. Help us as we go throughout this day to have a song of praise toward You ever present in our heart so that we can offer a hand of hope out to someone who needs a special touch from You. Let us be Your hand extended today and a mighty tree of shelter. ******************************************* Please join us in skype on Monday thru Friday from 3:30 p.m. eastern time addiction recovery1,praising and testimony worship in skype. O. Addison Gethers e-mail address [email protected] [email protected] messenger contact window live messenger: [email protected] aim: durangoadd64 skype:cowboys62 yahoo:OADDISONGETHERS --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Deaf-Blind Inspirational Life Group" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/DBILG?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
