Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is

"Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit" (Jer. 17:7,8). This scripture passage means exactly what it says, nothing more, nothing less. Once we have learned that the Lord will never let us down as long as we trust and hope in him alone, there simply is no way for us to be defeated by any despair or oppression. And as the scripture states, those who trust implicitly in God's grace, and refuse to lose hope in his unfathomable mercy, will continue to grow in faith and bear fruit unto him. Peter minced no words in describing the daunting challenge that our faith sometimes incurs in this life: "Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ" (I Pet. 1:6,7). "Tried with fire" is absolutely the truth indeed. Sometimes it can feel totally impossible that we can make it through some of these fiery trials, but if we just don't give up our faith and our hope in Jesus, he will bring us through in the end. There is no other possibility, because it is Jesus whom the scripture rightly calls "Faithful and True" (Rev. 19:11).

When it comes to the trying of our faith, I couldn't count the times that I've seen the following scripture fulfilled in my life: "Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit" (Eccl. 7:8). Nonetheless it is undoubtedly the 'getting to the end' of a thing that makes us, if we hold fast to our trust and our hope toward God. Jesus said it very plainly like this: "In your patience possess ye your souls" (Lk. 21:19). Matthew translated the same words of Jesus from the same sermon like this: "But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved" (Mat. 24:13). The scripture also speaks of Abraham, the father of the faithful, likewise: "And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise" (Heb. 6:15). The way we patiently endure whatever circumstances we may find ourselves in, is that we just continue to hope in God, trust in his love, and refuse to turn to sin. It is in our times of greatest trial and affliction that the following words of Jesus are fulfilled by means of our patient endurance in faith and hope toward him, when it feels impossible to bear the load: "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me" (Lk. 9:23). There is only one alternative to that commandment, and it is not a good one: "And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple" (Lk. 14:27). The good news is that he DID take up HIS cross, and he did die for us on that cross; and that death along with his resurrection and victory over death, does guarantee that we cannot lose if we keep our eyes on him, and our faith and hope in him. It really is that simple, and it really is that true. Amen.