NOTES for Jer 17:5-10

Today's Old Testament reading says that the one who withdraws from God will not see when good comes. And although this is a common biblical figure of speech meaning that no good will come at all, what matters for us here is that this is connected with a person's personal choice. When we withdraw from the Lord, we go into the wilderness. When we turn away from Him, we refuse to see the good. A person who chooses the way of unrighteousness plugs his ears and closes his eyes - and therefore does not hear the Good News.

A person who hopes in God gains an inexhaustible spring of life. No external, and not even internal, circumstances (for drought often happens in our hearts too) can deprive us of the living water that the Lord gives.

But the most interesting thing is that both parts of this passage apply to us. None of us can say that we have never, even for a moment, relied on flesh, that is, on purely human, worldly wisdom, which the apostle Paul called foolishness before God (1 Cor. 3:19). At the same time, each of us has been given the living water of the Lord's love, and every Christian has experience of drought endured in the peace of Christ, which surpasses all understanding. So both indifference and the freedom of the glory of the children of God are realities of our life. And every day, every minute, is an opportunity to choose: what or Whom am I hoping in?