They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season without fail. Their leaves never wither, and in all they do, they prosper. - Psalm 1:3

A tree with roots in the riverbank will be ever green. The leaves are green, the branches are strong, the trunk is solid, the roots are deep. Similarly, the woman who chooses to live a spiritually vibrant life will choose to be a “planted” person, like a tree planted in a channel where the water never stops flowing. God’s grace plants his followers in running streams of his love. These “trees” have to flourish, for they have all they need.

The desert crowd, on the other hand, is a secular bunch of scrublike bushes, parched and dry. Politically correct maybe, yet scoffing at the God of all things and all the things of God. Such people “are like worthless chaff, scattered by the wind” (Psalm 1:4).

We need to find out what sort of people we are—planted by the riverbank or blowing across the desert. If we are God’s people, he plants us in his river of salvation, where our roots are bathed in the water of eternal life. Then, as the psalmist says, we will prosper spiritually. We need to let our roots drink deeply of this living water so we can be transformed. If we are truly planted, we will be productive, however hot the desert sun or barren the wilderness around us. Planted people are joyous people (Psalm 1:1). Our soul, like the tree with its roots in the river that flows from the throne of God, will be ever green.

For Further Study: Psalm 1:1-6

Excerpted from The One Year Devotions for Women, Copyright ©2000 by Jill Briscoe. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.

For more from Jill Briscoe, please visit TellingtheTruth.org.

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