What Kind of Tree are You?

Ps. 92:12 The righteous flourish like the palm tree
and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
13They are planted in the house of the LORD;
they flourish in the courts of our God.

In our culture today, green products are very vogue, meaning they are trendy. Green products are things that are easily produced or very sustainable. Green products, like trees, grow fast and yet produce a good amount of product. An oak tree would not be considered green because it takes too long to grow. Bamboo is, because it grows quickly.

Quite possibly you have driven by a field of trees that are being grown for pulp. They are trees that are planted like corn, only they get 50-60' tall in 10-15 years. Sometimes when the winters are hard these trees get laden with snow or ice and they bend and break, because they grow quickly and the wood is not strong enough to hold additional weight, except for the leaves and small branches of the tree itself.

There are also trees that grow with very shallow root systems and when the wind blows they are easily knocked over because the roots have not gone deep enough in the ground to allow them to stay upright.

You can probably see the direction I am going here. We often want to be ready for trials that come along, but we want to be ready right now. We want to be able to hold others up when we can barely hold our own "leaves" up. We want to be able to withstand strong winds, but our roots are not deep enough yet.

I am encouraged, and want to encourage you also, that God is the Master Gardener who can grow us, make our roots deep, and make us strong in adversity. He can take His Word and plant it deep in us so that when the storms of life hit we are ready with that Scripture and He brings it back to remind us. The longer we walk with Him the stronger we are because He is strong. We can have faith that He will do the work in us, not because of what we have done, but because of Who He is.

Lord may I love Your Word and dwell in It so much that when I speak it is Your Word that comes out of my mouth. May Your Truth be deeply planted in my life so when trials come I would be able to stand upright and not be shaken because You have made me strong. I desire this, not so I would be honored but so others would be able to see that it is only You who could have done this in me and would glorify You because of what You have done. Grow me for Your purposes. Use me as You will. Produce fruit in me that brings You delight.

Ps. 1:3 He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.