God, You’re Good, But…..

At the end of the game in the Big 12 championship football game many years ago, the UT kicker was preparing to attempt the game winning field goal. A timeout was called by the opposing team to try to “ice” the kicker. During the timeout the holder took the kicker aside and quoted this verse (Jer 17:7). I can’t say if it was prophetic, in the sense of God rewarding UT with the victory, but I will say it’s very true in life. It’s something that when we strive to know God, and live our lives to please Him, we gain a quiet, but yet powerful confidence to continue. When we put our trust and strength in ourselves or others (man) we drift away from God. Without God we dry up; we waste away. Take for example our modern world, we depend on the government to save us. We demand our government to provide for us. We depend on our government’s strength and trust that it will sustain us. That’s so unbiblical. It’s as if to say, “God you’re good, but I’ll trust my job, my government, or my family to take care of me”. It’s not until tragedy strikes that we finally realize we were placing our faith in the wrong places. We reap what we sow. By the way, the kick was good, and UT won the game and moved up in the national rankings (not that I’m a fan of theirs). I guess God did bless the duo (kicker and holder) that day.

This is what the Lord says:“Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans,who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord.6 They are like stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future. They will live in the barren wilderness, in an uninhabited salty land. 7 “But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.8 They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water.Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought.Their leaves stay green,and they never stop producing fruit. 9 “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things,and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?10 But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.” Jeremiah 17:5-10