Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

 

This is what the Lord says:

“Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the Lord.  That person will be like a bush in the wastelands; they will not see prosperity when it comes.  They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.  “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.  They 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.”

–         Jeremiah 17:5-8

 

“In 2012, the United States experienced its worst drought in 25 years. The lack of snowfall did more than disappoint schoolchildren; it discouraged farmers as well. The shortage of melted water into the soil had a catastrophic [effect] on crops. Without life-giving water, many crops failed to produce, thereby driving up the cost of food for consumers.

“Water is essential for producing a harvest. … Those who drink the ‘living water’ offered from the Lord never fail to bear fruit in season.”

–          Presidential Prayer Team Devotion, April 6, 2018

 

 

Coming into this year, there was a large portion of the US that was in another drought, from the Southeast to the Southwest.  There have been areas near the drought areas that have been flooded this year, multiple times.  I wrote a month or so ago, about the floods in Tennessee and Kentucky on our way back from Alabama.  Some drought areas remain, while a couple hours down the road, there are fields too wet for the tractors to plow for planting.  Floods at this time of year in the South of the US will make it hard to get a crop planted at the proper time.  The quoted devotion above talked of the cost of food increasing and that may happen again.  The price goes up with bad crop years, but never seems to go down in a good year.

 

The Scripture points out that we should not trust in man.  Who is the man?  Of course, as children, we have no choice but to trust in our parents.  Parents have a great deal of responsibility and weight on their shoulders.  Could that not be a reason for the Fifth Commandment?  The parents are to show God to their children.  They do, in a way, regardless of their beliefs sometimes.  Parents that have little or no faith reflect that empty hopelessness to their children.  Parents with strong faith show a lack of worry, regardless of circumstances.  Most of us are somewhere in between.

 

Who else could be the man, not to be trusted?  We should trust in God and not in our government.  I agree with some Christian leaders that our government should have strong Christians in high places.  Many decisions are being made today that do not reflect Christian beliefs, some in direct opposition.

 

The Scripture defines the man who is not to be trusted as someone who draws from flesh rather than the heart.  There are ministers in the pulpit that we probably shouldn’t trust under that definition.  Not speaking of our current pastor, I have known some that met that description in the past.

 

Who should we trust?  God, and God alone.

 

How can we be prepared for our own harvest?  To trust in God alone.