Planted By Streams of Water

Psalm 1

¹ Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.

² But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

³ He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.

⁴ Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.

⁵ Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

⁶ For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.

Jeremiah 17

⁷ "But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence is in him.

⁸ 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."

A good friend of mine recently recommended I read through Psalms 1. What a great passage! (I added Jeremiah 17 myself as I studied this topic of planting by streams of water.)

Do you want to be like a tree planted by the water? Do you want to grow, be full of life, bear fruit, and not worry about the hard times?

Then you need to make sure you are planted by streams of water. Living Water. You need to be sure that you have a source of life flowing through and around you. That you are constantly refreshed and filled spiritually.

The cleaner the water, the better. The fresher the better. Water is the source of life, spiritually and physically.

Do you want to be a dying tree? Not dead. Not thriving. Surviving. Barely living. Then plant yourselves further away from the water or in a desert. You'll reap what you've sown.

If you are struggling with spiritual vitality then perhaps you are NOT planted by a stream of living water. Maybe you're getting just enough to survive, but are you growing, thriving, drinking in fresh water daily, and being renewed?

Often times we take our spiritual state for granted. We think it is somehow unrelated to what is going on in the rest of our life. That somehow it is disconnected, and our spiritual state is the result of these physical things that happen to us - the "trials".

Here's how we usually think: Having a rough time being happy and content (spiritually happy)? It is probably because you're not advancing well in your career, your marriage and family isn't where you want it to be, or any other number of other endless "goals" we set for ourselves. So we get dejected and down - our spirit goes bad.

But I say it first starts with the spirit. Guess what? If you are in a spiritually good state - those other things will not matter. Yes, you will have challenges. But they will not overcome you. You will rise above them.

Furthermore, if you are not planted by streams of water - you will eventually wither and die. You can be doing all the right things - trying to make it on your own in a land void of water trying to provide it to yourself or from the occasional, seasonal stream - but you're just not taking root and growing. You have no source of life and energy, and the source of life and energy that you can store within your own trunk, branches, and leaves, will soon be consumed and you will eventually wither and pass away.

This is especially true of leaders. If you are not planted by streams of water - where life flows in and through you from an external source - you will quickly have the life sucked right out of you. Your nutrients will be consumed. Then, the branches and leaves of your life spiritually - family, friends, community - will eventually suffer the consequences as their stream of water begins to dry up.

And it just cascades from there.

So, here's my challenge to you - and thanks to my friend for challenging me in the same fashion - and for the wisdom of their mentors sharing this to them as spiritual leaders.

Plant yourselves by streams of water if you want to thrive and grow (be happy).