I’ve done a lot of thinking over the last few weeks, most of it unproductive and disturbingly revealing of my (many) sins. It is a hard road to become like Paul and consider myself the ‘least of all (wo)men’. I feel an intensely strong need to keep hold of my own personal identity, to ‘know who I am’, to be strong in myself and am disappointed when I fail, yet again. I am just too weak.
And yet the Bible tells me over
and over that it is in weakness that I find my strength. I think I need to find
these Scriptures and, if not committing them to memory, collect them somewhere
to hold on to and remind myself over and over.
SPACE
FOR BIBLE VERSES WHICH REMIND OF WEAKNESS!!
The righteous flourish like a palm tree and grow
strong like the cedars of Lebanon.
Planted
in the house of the Lord they flourish in
the courts of our God.
They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green,
Flourish.
Strong's 6524: To
break forth as a, bud, bloom, to spread, to fly, to flourish
Bear
fruit
Strong's 5107: To
germinate, to flourish, to utter
Planted
8362: to transplant
The idea of being planted comes
from the Hebrew word ‘transplant’. According to the dictionary, it means to
move something, or to be moved, from one place or person to another. We
transplant a shoot or plant, often a young plant, somewhere we hope that it
will thrive and grow BETTER THAN BEFORE. Those of us who have moved house to
another place, even perhaps only a few miles away, do so with the hope that we
will thrive better than before.
For those of us who have been
transplanted unwillingly – perhaps sent to another school as a child or moving
away from family and friends because of a spouse’s job – we feel uncomfortable,
as if we don’t really belong. We talk about ‘putting down roots’ or
‘adjusting’. Sometimes it takes us a while to feel that God has indeed
‘planted’ us and that we can ‘bloom where we are planted’.
So, whether we choose or not, we
are planted. How do we recognise that we are planted in the house of the Lord?
The promise in Psalm 92 is that we
WILL flourish.
What does ‘flourish’ look like?
Psalm 1:3
They are like trees growing
beside a stream, trees that produce fruit in season and always have leaves.
Those people succeed in everything they do. (ESV)
How do they do this? The previous
two verses tell us: Psalm 1:1-2 Oh, the joys of those who do not follow evil
men’s advice, who do not hang around with sinners, scoffing at the things of
God. But they delight in doing everything God wants them to, and day and
night are always meditating on his laws and thinking about ways to follow
him more closely.
Cross-references: Joshua 1:8 This
Book of the Law must not depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night,
so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. For then you will
prosper and succeed in all you do.
Psalm 25:5 Guide me in Your truth
and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; all day long I wait for You.
Psalm 63:5 My soul is satisfied as
with the richest of foods; with joyful lips my mouth will praise You.
Psalm 63:6 When I remember You on
my bed, I think of You through the watches of the night.
Psalm 112:1 Hallelujah! Blessed is
the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in His commandments.
Psalm 119:14 I rejoice in the way
of Your testimonies as much as in all riches.
Psalm 40:8 I delight to do thy
will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.
Psalm 112:1 Praise ye the LORD.
Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD, that delighteth greatly in his
commandments.
Psalm 119:11,35,47,48,72,92
Thy word have I hid in mine heart,
that I might not sin against thee…
Psalm 104:34 My meditation of him
shall be sweet: I will be glad in the LORD.
Psalm 119:11,15,97-99 Thy word
have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee…
Indeed. Yet sometimes it is hard
to meditate on Scripture. We get distracted by all those hundreds and thousands
of things that we have to do in our days, by relationships with friends and
family – all good things, but often there just doesn’t seem to be time to
‘meditate’, apart from a few minutes, perhaps, on the toilet or in the shower.
What makes the difference for me
is in the encouragement of others. I find it hard to go it alone. “Planted in the house of the Lord they (the righteous) flourish in the courts of our God.” House of the
Lord can mean the actual temple but here it means to be in God’s presence, to
be living with God and to let him nurture us, as a tree planted in a garden is
nurtured and cared for.
But I think it also can mean to be
in the house of the Lord which is the Church – not just Trinity, but the
believers we are in community with, our friends who may live elsewhere, our
family, sermons and talks we may listen to, Christian blogs and vlogs we may
watch.
For me, I get huge encouragement
from being with others in a small group.
Hebrews 10:25 talks about “not
giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging
one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” and Jesus went
beyond just being planted in God’s house but taught that we are actually
grafted in, joined together with him and each other in one vine.
John 15:1 – 8 “I am the true
grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch of mine
that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so
they will produce even more. 3 You have already been pruned and purified by the
message I have given you. 4 Remain in me, and I will
remain in you. For a branch cannot
produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless
you remain in me.
5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are
the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit.
For apart from me you can do nothing. 6 Anyone who does not remain in me is
thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into
a pile to be burned. 7 But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you
may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! 8 When you produce much
fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.” New
Living Translation
Yes, my
hair is becoming progressively greyer and old age seems to be approaching ever
more rapidly. But God has promised that, if I stay in His presence, and know
that my righteousness is only because of what Jesus has done – that I am indeed
the ‘least of all (wo)men’, then I will indeed bear fruit in old age and stay
fresh and green. For “ Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Lord
is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow
tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives
strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow
tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run
and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Isaiah 40:28 – 31
I can
‘forget’ the many sins and mistakes I have committed, because Jesus has
forgiven me and made me righteous. I think of verses such as
Psalm 52:8-9
But I am
like an olive tree flourishing
in the house of God;
I trust in God’s unfailing
love for ever
and ever.
For what you have done I will
always praise you in the
presence of your faithful people.
And I will hope in your
name, for your name is good.
Romans 5
reminds me: “Therefore, since we have
been justified through faith, we[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which
we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but
we[c] also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces
perseverance; perseverance, character;
and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through
the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
You see,
at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the
ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good
person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love
for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
The New
Living Translation says that ‘hope does not lead to disappointment’. If we feel disappointed with ourselves,
grieving over past mistakes, hurts and sins, let us hang on to hope, because
‘God’s name is good.’ And he has promised.
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