Apologetics

TREE PLANTED BY STREAMS OF WATER

by Madeleine Heathcote- Smith
10/26/15
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TREE PLANTED BY STREAMS OF WATER

Since I have become a Christian nothing has captured my attention than the men or women of Christ who with a humble self-confidence has the ability to carry themselves in dignity and grace while at the same time live out their capacity for the love of people around them. Such persons carry such authority wherever they go that they influence others in a positive way.

 This type of humble self-confidence does not come with age, it comes with abiding.

 Psalm 1: 1-3 teaches us:

 “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. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 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.” NIV

 You see dear child of God these men and women did not change overnight. They paid the price for their abiding through sacrifice, but with every moment spent in the glory of their Almighty God and in His Word they were transformed to the persons they are now today.

 These men and women also understand that their transformation is not yet finished, that it is a process. With longsuffering they endure the fire of purification towards holiness and in so doing they become the persons everyone so much admires.

 For all of us there is a lesson to be learnt. We cannot be followers of Christ with the expectations of an easy going life. Yes, the gift of redemption through the cross is free but to be a disciple of Christ takes commitment and sacrifice not many are willing to make.

 Yet in these last days that is just exactly what our Lord and Savior expects of us. He wants us to abide in His glorious presence so that we can be purified into living holy lives which bring glory to His Heavenly Father.

 And then so it is that we are also transformed just like these men and women we long so admired through the long process of abiding and purification.  Yet over time as we endure through abiding and purification we will become more and more like trees planted by streams of water those leaves never withers.