Bootstrap

Prosperous Trees

Daily Reflection / Produced by The High Calling
Default article daily reflection

They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.

Psalm 1:3

Introducing a Change in Weekend Daily Reflections:

Beginning today, I’m going to try something new in these Daily Reflections. During the week I’ll continue to work passage by passage through a book of the Bible. But on Saturday and Sunday, I’ll base my reflections on a Psalm. This will allow for some thematic variation, while still taking us systematically through different biblical books. More importantly, it will allow us to dig deeply into the Psalms, the Spirit-inspired instruction book for prayer. As we work through the whole Psalter, two chapters each weekend, I pray that your relationship with God will become deeper, truer, and more vital.

––––––––––––––––––––

One of the things I loved about living in Southern California was the proximity of the local mountains. Within an hour’s drive from Los Angeles, I could be in pine forests over 5,000 feet above sea level. Most of the lower hills and valleys, however, are not covered with evergreen trees. Except for a couple of months in the spring, the hills come in various shades of dry and dusty brown.

Not so in the lowest sections of the mountain canyons, however. Even during the driest seasons of the year you can find green oaks, alders, and sycamores. Why? Because these trees draw moisture from the water that collects in the canyon bottoms. Tree roots penetrate deeply into the soil, allowing the trees to flourish throughout the year.

Psalm 1 paints a similar picture of healthy, fruitful trees. They don’t wither. They’re always productive. Why? Because they’re planted by streams of water. Their roots always supply what the trees need to prosper.

I want to be like one of these trees. Don’t you? I want to live fruitfully. I want my life to count. How can I make sure this happens? By allowing my roots to grow deeply into the stream of God’s own life. I will live a truly productive life if and only if I am profoundly connected to the living God.

These Daily Reflections are meant to facilitate this very connection in your life. I pray that as you read and pray using these reflections, your roots will grow deeply into God’s truth, so that you might live an abundant, fruitful life.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: To what extent are you like the trees in Psalm 1:3? What helps your roots to grow deeply into God’s life?

PRAYER: O Lord, I want to be like those trees! I want to live a fruitful life. I want to be resistant, so that I don’t wither away when things are hard. I want to prosper, so that my life makes a real difference for you in this world.

All of this is possible, but only if I let my roots grow deeply into your living water. When I try to live by my own effort, I exhaust myself and begin to wither. My fruit dries up, or never even appears. But when I spend time with you, when I meditate upon your Word, when I open my heart to you in prayer, when I join with your people in worship, when I offer myself to you each day as your servant, then I live an abundant life. May this be true of me in this new year. May I be a truly prosperous tree because I am planted firmly in you. Amen.

{ body #wrapper section#content.detail .body .body-main blockquote p { font-size: 0.875rem !important; line-height: 1.375rem !important; } }