I personally desire to be planted as close to God as I can, so that I can drink from the living water and grow spiritually. I don’t want to plant myself near the television or the movie theater or the porn sites. If I feed on all that the world’s “junk food,” my spiritual condition will reflect that. By planting myself near God’s resources, I have the promises that I will flourish in the courts of God, I will bear fruit even in old age, and I will be fresh and flourishing to declare that God is Good!
The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those who are planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bear fruit in old age; they shall be fresh and flourishing, to declare that the LORD is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. Psalm 92:12-15
This Psalm gives us a glimpse of what fruitfulness in God looks like. A person’s lack of fruitfulness in God can be a major foothold of condemnation from the devil. It can be easy to get overrun in our sin, stalled in our faith and convinced that God is out to punish us. If that’s your situation, take comfort that Jesus bore God’s entire wrath toward you on the cross. You now have peace with God (Romans 5:1) and can boldly come before God for help at any time (Hebrews 4:16).
God’s gift to you along with the forgiveness of your sins is that he counts you as righteous through the blood of Jesus. As such, you may claim the promises in the Bible toward the righteous (Romans 3:21-29). The above Psalm contains several such promises. The one requirement is that you must “plant yourself” in the house of the Lord. This means we should be well grounded in the word of God (the Bible), plugged into a good church and pursuing a relationship with God.
This is such an encouraging post Lori! On occasion I get bogged down with the amount of evil in the world. But you're so right, we can claim the promises God makes to the righteous (through His blood), and bear much fruit for Him.
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry for your loss. Your cousin was so young, and I'm sure the family is suffering. I pray you/they find comfort in His Word.
Great post and it gives me a lot to think about. All the garbage in this world is sometimes so overwhelming.
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