Morning By Morning #362

Can reeds thrive without water?

Job 8:11

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

A reed is spongy and hollow, like a hypocrite who has no substance or stability. It shakes to and fro in the wind, much like people more concerned with legalism and the form of worship than with any inner significance and who therefore yield to every outside influence. This is the reason a reed is not broken by a storm and why hypocrites are never troubled by persecution. While most of us would not willingly be a deceiver or be deceived, our text verse today is perhaps a good test to determine whether we are hypocrites. For example, a reed by nature lives in water and owes its very existence to the mud and moisture where it has taken root, but if the mud dries out, the reed quickly withers. Its greenness is absolutely dependent upon its circumstances, for an abundance of water causes it to flourish, while a drought destroys it.

Is this my case? Do I serve God only when good people surround me or when my faith is profitable and respected? Do I love the Lord only when worldly comforts come from His hands? If so, I am nothing but a shameful hypocrite and, like a withering reed, I will perish when death deprives me of outward joys. Can I honestly say that when bodily comforts have been few and my surroundings have been hostile to my walk of grace that my integrity has been maintained? If so, then I have hope of a genuine living godliness in me.

A reed cannot grow without moisture, but plants of “the LORD’S right hand” (Ps. 118:15) can and do flourish, even in a year of drought. In fact, a godly man often grows best when his worldly circumstances decay. He who follows Christ for His moneybag is nothing but a Judas (see John 13:29), and they who follow Him for loaves of bread and fish are children of the Devil. But they who follow Him due to their genuine love for Him are His beloved ones.

Lord, let me find my life in You—not in the muck and mire of this world’s favor or gain.

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

Paul warns against hypocrisy by describing people who have “a form of godliness” while “denying its power” (2 Tim. 3:5). In light of this and today’s teaching, consider these words from Jeremiah:

Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD. He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.

Jeremiah 17:5-8

In contrast to the reed that is so dependent on its environment, here is what the future holds for those who truly love the Lord:

The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green.

Psalm 92:12-14