The Tree By The Water

Yesterday, a friend of mine told me they could not meet with me over coffee because they needed to get away and pray over somethings they are dealing with.  I asked them how can I be praying for them, and instead of getting a few prayer items I got a verse from Jeremiah.  Jeremiah 17: 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.”  As I was studying this verse in its context to be praying for my friend I realized I need this reminder as well.  Jeremiah compares two types of trees in this passage.  If you go back to verse 6 Jeremiah speaks of the other tree. “He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert in a salt land where no one lives.” Two very different trees here.  If you were the tree, where would you want to the be, in the parched desert or the tree by the water?  Easy choice right.  So often we are the tree that is living in the parched desert. Why?  It comes down to who we are trusting.  You see the one tree that is in the parched desert is the one person who is trusting in man verses the one who is trusting in the Lord, the tree by the water.  Verse 5 Jeremiah  says, “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord.”  So often we either rely on others to help meet our needs or we rely on our self’s and our own strength.  When we do that we become the tree that is starving for water.  Everything needs water, and our one source of water is Christ and the way we get more of Christ is from His Word.  It’s His Word that keeps us grounded in Him and keeps us trusting in Him, and we our like the tree that is planted by the stream of water, we have an endless supply of water, of life. When we step away from God’s Word, church, we shift our focus on us and on others and that’s when we start having problems, because the heat and droughts of life are coming, and we start going back to old habits, and old thinking.  Another way we can easily move away from God’s Word is to start reading a lot of books that speak about God.  God’s Word is our water, other books that talk about God is our bread.  We cannot live on bread alone, we have to have water to survive.  Where is your tree at today? Are you in the wastelands, the desert, or is your tree drinking the sweet water of Jesus? If we are in the wastelands, move your focus and trust to the Lord and the sweet stream of Jesus will rise up next to the tree and the roots can tap into the life source of water.  If your by the stream keep your focus on the Lord, streams can dry up.

Healing Is A Life Long Process

So often I wish I could take a break from my journey of healing and get off the path to rest, it hurts and it’s painful and there are days that are just no fun. Those days seem to turn into weeks that roll over to months. There are days I wish I could just stop hurting, but because I am still hurting, I have to continue to walk on my path of healing because God is not done with me yet. God is not in a hurry, He grows things. As hard as this statement is, it’s true. We see this in Scripture. God wasn’t in a hurry to get things done. He has a perfect plan and that plan is still playing out today. Our healing is a life-long process that will be completed at the end of our life. Don’t give up! As much as it hurts to keep going. There are days I am just flat frustrated and I wish I could get punched in the face because at least then I will know where the pain is coming from. There are days I just hurt and don’t know where in the world the pain is coming from, but God knows, and I think He has to wait until we are ready to deal with said pain. For the last several months I have been dealing with some stuff and the pain level has been pretty high up. The one thing I thought was causing my pain was not it at all and the Lord had to take me down a long walk to show me that. At the end of the walk, I was very disappointed but the Lord had to take me down that path to show me what I thought was causing problems was not the “root” issue at all. There was a much bigger issue. For several weeks I have been hurting because in my heart I would not have been able to accept the true cause of the problem because I was not focused right. Finally, yesterday God started to unpack another wound I had been carrying around for so many years. (See my series on wounds – https://refugenortheast.wordpress.com/2016/04/26/the-wound-part-1/)

This wound I thought I had already dealt with it, but I came to realize I just packed it back down and didn’t really deal with it. I don’t hurt as much today, I think most of this is because I am in shock that this issue I thought I had dealt with was nowhere dealt with. I say all this to say, that I am still walking on my path of healing, and the Lord is still able to use me to help others and to encourage others. I know with the Lords help I will be able to get past this current wound I am working on with Him. Then there will be another one the Lord will need to bring up and help me deal with in His timing. Don’t give up! I know it hurts and it’s no fun, but remember we have to go through the pain to be healed. God loves you!

Ask the Lord to continue to help you move through your pain and to show you where your pain is coming from. Ask Him if you’re at a place to even deal with it. I wasn’t, and I totally missed the mark on this one. Remember we are on a lifetime walk with the Lord on this path of healing.

 

 

Taking Your Mask Off = Healing

 

We are so good at wearing masks to hide behind. I have worn countless masks throughout my life and always seem to have one in my pocket to put on if need be at times. We don’t want others to see our pain, or to see us struggling, so we put a mask on to show others we have everything together. Our mask shows we are happy, strong, powerful, in control. However, we are dying on the inside with our hurts and pains. We wear a mask so others don’t see how broken we really are. Being broken is a great thing! Let me say that again, being broken is a great thing. I will be the first to tell you I am a broken mess, and my wife would second that. It took me a while to accept my brokenness but when I did it made my journey of healing a little bit easier. Accepting our brokenness is a part of the healing process. If I could have truly fixed myself I would not have struggled with my addiction for over 20 years. I am broken, and I need God and His grace to save me from myself and to transform me to be more like Jesus.

When we take our mask’s off we are allowing others to see our brokenness, hurts, pains, and struggles. Now our culture says that those who are broken our weak people, hence why we wear masks. After Jesus called Matthew to be his disciple He went to Matthew’s house for a great feast and the religious cats of that day were questioning why Jesus would be with the tax collectors and sinners. Those who are “broken.” Luke 5: 31-32 says, “And Jesus answered them, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” Jesus came for those who are broken. Isaiah 61: 1-3 gives us a look into why Christ came, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion – to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.” Jesus came for broken people. Broken people is who He came to save and to open up His kingdom for.

Taking off our masks is a hard thing to do, keeping them on is even harder to do. There is freedom when we take off our masks and we say, I am broken. I need help. God doesn’t want you to climb out of the pit your in. He wants you to turn around and allow Him to lead you at the other way. Brokenness is what allows us to turn around.