everal years ago I was praying about what I could do with my life for God. I wanted to serve Him in some great way, and was willing to go or do whatever He had in mind. One day a friend of mine was praying for me. As he prayed, he said he saw me as if I were a tree, not necessarily going or doing anything, but standing still and growing tall. And as I grew, people would come and rest under the shade of my branches.

Number 13: Like A Tree Planted By Water

By Eric Elder

Several years ago I was praying about what I could do with my life for God. I wanted to serve Him in some great way, and was willing to go or do whatever He had in mind. One day a friend of mine was praying for me. As he prayed, he said he saw me as if I were a tree, not necessarily going or doing anything, but standing still and growing tall. And as I grew, people would come and rest under the shade of my branches.

It was quite a picture, but it wasn’t quite what I had in mind. I wanted to go and do something spectacular for God, but it sounded like God wanted me to stay where I was and keep growing in Him. It reminded me of the passage that we’re looking at today, Psalm 1. It’s a passage that describes just such a man:

“He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.”
(Psalm 1:2)

As I read that passage, all of a sudden, it didn’t sound so bad to me. How awesome to be like a tree planted by streams of water. To dig my roots deep into the ground and soak up all I could of the life-giving water nearby. To be able to yield fruit when it was time, and to know that my leaves would never wither, and that all that I did would prosper.

I wanted to be like that tree, so I looked at the rest of Psalm 1, where it showed me how:

“Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.”
(Psalm 1:1)

Rather than entering into the way of the wicked and sinners and scoffers, God wanted me to dig deep into His Word--to take delight in reading it and meditating on it day and night. In the process, I would grow stronger and taller in my life and my faith. And as I grew, I would be blessed, and so would those around me, as a natural byproduct of my own growth.

I felt both relief and exhilaration at the same time. Instead of having to try to figure it all out right away, I could focus clearly on meditating on His Word, and let God bring the fruit “in its season.”

There’s something spectacular about reading and meditating on God’s Word. A monk named Thomas Merton said:

“By reading the scriptures I am so renewed that all nature seems renewed around me and with me. The sky seems to be a pure, a cooler blue, the trees a deeper green. The whole world is charged with the glory of God and I feel fire and music under my feet.”

And reading the Bible not only changes your outlook on life, it changes you. It helps you grow, and helps you grow in your faith as well. D.L. Moody, the great evangelist and founder of the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, put it this way:

“I prayed for faith and thought it would strike me like lightning. But faith did not come. One day I read, ‘Now faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.’ I had closed my Bible and prayed for faith. I now began to study my Bible and faith has been growing ever since.”

If you want to serve God in a powerful way, I encourage you to take the words of Psalm 1 to heart. Don’t take the path of wicked and sinners and scoffers. Take the path of meditating on God’s Word day and night instead. Send your roots deep into His life-giving words. As you grow--and as your faith grows--you will be blessed, and so will those around you. You’ll have a new outlook on life, and others will gather around you just to rest in the shade of your tree.

Let’s pray...

Father, thank You for giving us Your Word so that we can read it, meditate on it, and grow in our faith and in our lives. Help us to grow strong and tall as we read Your Word, so that we can bear fruit “in its season,” and bless others along the way. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

P.S. If you’d like some help in reading through your Bible, I’ve written several devotional books that will take you through various books of the Bible, passage by passage, helping you to see how the words written so long ago still apply so aptly to your life today. I’d be glad to send you a copy of one of the books I recently finished called “Ephesians: Lessons In Grace.” It’ll take you through the well-loved book of Ephesians, a book that contains 3 of the Top 20 Passages in the Bible. Just use the link below to make a donation of any size to our ministry this month, and I’ll be sure you get a copy of the book.
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Today’s Scripture: Psalm 1
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Today’s Memory Verse: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:1, ESV).

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