Jer. 17:7-8 Blessed is the man who trusts in Jehovah…He will be like a tree transplanted beside water, which sends out its roots by a stream, and will not be afraid when heat comes; for its leaves remain flourishing, and it will not be anxious in the year of drought and will not cease to bear fruit
John 4:14 …The water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life
According to God’s economy, the one who trusts in God is like a tree planted by water, signifying God as the fountain of living waters (Jer. 2:13a)
The tree grows beside the river by absorbing all the riches of the water into it. [Jeremiah 17:7-8] is a picture of God’s dispensing. In order to receive the divine dispensing, we as the trees must absorb God as the water
The watering is for the tree’s absorbing, and the absorbing is the receiving of God’s dispensing [cf. 1 Cor. 3:6]. The tree grows with God as the Supplier and the supply. The supply is the riches of the supplying God dispensed into us as the plants so that we may grow into God’s measure. Eventually, the plants and God, God and the plants, are one, having the same element, essence, constitution, and appearance
Jeremiah 17:7 and 8…refer to God’s economy carried out by His dispensing. God is the living water to be dispensed into our being in order to become our very constituent. We all need to see the crucial significance of absorbing God as the living water that we may be constituted with His element and essence. (Life-study of Jeremiah, pp. 111-112)
Today’s Reading
We may not say anything when we come to God, but our whole being, including our heart, should face God. While we look to God, we may sigh and confess that we are incompetent, weak, unable to rise, unpresentable, and thirsty and that we lack words for the gospel and are not inclined to fellowship with the saints. We should lay our inner condition before God and even tell Him that we are short in every matter. No matter what our inner condition is, we should bring it to God. There is a hymn that says, “Just as I am” (Hymns, #1048). This means that we should come to God just as we are without trying to improve or change our condition
To pray is to come to God just as we are. The closer we are to our true condition, the better…Even if we are weak, confused, sad, and speechless, we can still come to God
God is everything to us…Our condition does not bother Him. He is concerned only about our seeing and contacting Him. As long as we come to Him, He has a way because He is the way. If we are weak, He is power. If we are not presentable, He is presentable. If we are unable to rise up, He is rising up. If we lack leading, He is the leading. If we do not have words, He is the Word…We do not have to wait or improve ourselves. The more we come to God according to our condition, the better
Instead of caring about our condition, we enter into God’s presence to contact God by looking to Him, beholding Him, praising Him, giving thanks to Him, worshipping Him, and absorbing Him. This is a sweet lesson. If we would learn this lesson, we will enjoy God’s riches and taste His sweetness
If we would spend a little time to enter into God’s presence and absorb Him every day, we will receive light and power; we will be peaceful, bright, strong, and empowered. (CWWL, 1956, vol. 3, “The Meaning and Purpose of Prayer,” pp. 225-226, 236) [The] flowing Triune God is “into eternal life.”…The eternal life is the destination of the flowing Triune God…The New Jerusalem is the totality of the divine, eternal life. The eternal life eventually will be the New Jerusalem
Thus, into eternal life means into the New Jerusalem. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John,” p. 455)