Devotions Archive Archive: 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 Search Archive Print This Article No worries Thursday, March 12, 2009 Jeremiah 17:7-9 Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit. The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? Replace my fear with trust, Lord. But I can't trust Bernie Madoff, sweet Jewish grandpa who likely will be sentenced to life in prison later this week. He stole billions of dollars from men and women who loved him. Show me the way to No-Worries-Land, Lord. But I know more than a few folks who have lost their jobs. They lost their insurance, too. They don't have a paycheck. They are not having much luck finding more work. Their nest eggs have been cracked and scrambled by the stock market collapse. They have cut out some of their bills, but the rest keep coming in. And piling up. I want to send down my roots near your living water, Lord. And I also want to wander the world. I would like a faster computer and a really nice digital SLR. I'd like to take a long trip to test out my new GPS. I'd really like to swim in a swimming pool right next to the ocean, Lord. (Sometime this month if possible.) And I'm hoping you can get the Illini basketball team into the Final Four. Why is that what I want to do I do not do, and what I do not want to do, that's what I do? Ask Cain, ask Joseph's brothers, ask David. Ask Peter. Ask Judas. Ask Paul. Actually, they ask the same question, so they might not have an answer. Jeremiah, who wrote the words in the Bible book with his name, hated his job. He tried to wriggle out of God's grasp. He is known as the weeping prophet. I never imagine him laughing. I'm guessing he really didn't enjoy his life. But he wrote these words about green living, about freedom from fear. The drought in his emotions didn't really faze him. Jeremiah took deep draughts of the Holy Spirit. His depression might not have lifted, but he saw through it into the eyes of God. He needed nothing else. He was home beside the water. Bless me, Lord, with friends and family who do not walk in the counsel of the wicked or sit in the seat of mockers. Teach me to delight in your law. Let me think about and learn from it, and meditate on it day and night. "; Add      Edit    Delete