Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. 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. - JEREMIAH 17:5-8. This text is about the contrast between having confidence in man and confidence in God. In all the places I have been in, these two weeks (in Addis, last week and Windhoek, this week), I am meeting very big men in our land. Just last night one of the great men together with the Zimbabwean ambassador to Namibia asked us to join us (Water Conference participants from Zimbabwe) to come eat with them on the table, together with them. Shall, I say we are in the same hotel. (Ndevaya vanhu vaunongooperera kuona munewspaper, vasingasvikike, tiriko kumusha). I have been asking myself, as a young man, on the watershed of life, what must I do? I know what people of my age feel like; we feel like we are in the time of having to amass things (good jobs, money, houses, farms, cars, etc). When you meet these people, you are tempted to say, Please Sir/Madam, I am here, get me connected to that everlasting source, where you are drawing your wealth which the newspaper always say you have. It is possible and may equally be good to do so. What is bad now is to put all your weight on man and cancel God because you have interacted me. Proverbs 18:16 says, A mans gift…brings him before great men. A mans gift will make you sit with great women and men. You gift will make you shake hands with presidents. But in all these instances, never substitute your trust/confidence in the LORD with either the gift or the great woman/man in your heart. If you do the substitution, you shall be like a plant in the desert. The bible says, such a plant is in trouble. It will not even see the good when it comes. In other words, it is so pre-occupied with the cares of the trouble than man cause. Vanhu vanonetsa. Vanhu vanotomutsa. Nhasi anokupa, mangwana anoti zhinhu zhangu zhiya zhandakakupa, pirizi, kana usingade ndokutorera. Munhu! Dzimwe nguva, anokwenya ari padhuze naye, wapfuura uchifangura mota yaakakupa, obva ati, Zviripi, dai ndisini achitori asina kana bhasikoro haro. But the bibles says to us, that the man whose confidence and hope is in the LORD is pretty blessed. I like the Holman Christian Standard Bible on verse 7 of Jeremiah. It says, The man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence indeed is the LORD, is blessed. God is God. God is gracious. In Psalm 71:5, David says, For You are my hope; O Lord GOD, You are my confidence from my youth. This is a young man, who had always depended on God. His roots were pinned right in God. I want to challenge us this morning: God must be everything to us. In trouble He must be our comfort; in darkness our light; in war our peace; in shame our glory; in drought our plenty; in bankruptcy our reserve of money; in loneliness our crowd; etc. When we begin to thrive and God is our source of hope and confidence then know we are safe and living. True life is only in the Lord! Are you rooted in him or in people? I like Sipho Makhabanes song, JESUS BE THE FIRST ONE, IN MY LIFE! Sure, He must be our first one. Matthew 6:33 says, But seek first Gods Kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well. The word first in the original Greek does not mean, in this text, is that which comes before all others, PROTON. (PROTON is the Greek word for FIRST mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:28. It means firstly in time, place, order or importance.) Jesus must be our principal source of everything! Treat people as mere agents to getting what you need/want. An agent merely takes or brings me what I want but is never my source or destination. Ungati uri Elijah, wounzirwa chingwa negunguwo, wotokanganwa nezvaMwari arituma, wave kutoita gunguwo Mwari! Ipapo pakatsveyama. Some of us have forgotten the source and now put much of their trust in the agent. Usatsamwire pombi kana isina kuburitsa mvura, asi bvunza pamahofisi akatsekera kuti zviri kufamba sei. Where are we putting our focus? Its high time we look up to God, again, Our Make and Our Creator, the Author and the Finisher of Our Faith. Iye achamutsa maagents akawanda, achakuigira chingwa chinopisa murenje panguva yokupererwa. There is hot bread out there. The source is not the bread or the raven. The source is God. Behind everything we see, touch, feel, taste, hear, sense, there is God. Jesus be the proton in my life!
Posted on: Thu, 31 Oct 2013 04:35:13 +0000
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