One of my favorite passages is Jeremiah 17: 7-8. “But blessed is the man (woman) who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. He (She) 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.”
This verse became special to me when I was at the beginning of my journey of praise. I was finding it so difficult to “trust” God – it felt so nebulous. I wanted deep confidence and flourishing fruit but felt both were lacking in my life. What I discovered in my journey is that confidence doesn’t just happen. Confidence comes as a result of certain life choices….one of them being praise. As I faithfully praised God no matter what the circumstances of my life, confidence began to slowly grow, and my life slowly began to produce fruit. Both confidence and fruit take time and are the result of faithfulness over time.
As I look at this next season of my life – I want confidence and fruit to continue growing in my life. That means I need to continue being faithful at praising God in advance for what He will do as well as praising Him that He is sovereign when life is falling apart. What about you? How are you doing in the confidence department? How’s the fruit growth coming? Have you tried to make praising God an intentional part of your spiritual journey. Try it. I think you’ll find the results astounding!
I’d love to hear from you and happen to still have a 10.00 I-tunes gift card as well as a copy of The 30 Day Praise Challenge to give away. Leave a comment and I’ll choose a name to win both!~
One Response
Regina Collier
I used to think that bearing fruit meant you had to do great, important things for God; that you had to be someone like Billy Graham. But as I have watched my children and grandchildren grow in Christ, I have learned that by letting them see Christ through me, they have come to know Christ themselves. I don’t have to travel the world, giving impressive speeches to crowds of people. I just have to live my life for Christ and tell others, as I go, about our wonderful Lord and Savior. I have faithfully taken my kids and grandkids to Church and through that they have come to the Lord. I have shown God’s love to others in my community and I pray that someday they too will come to know the Lord. None of this is done in my own power, however. The Holy Spirit gives me the confidence to tell others the Good News.