Pray With MeVoorbeeld

A Tree Planted by Water

As a child growing up in a loving Christian family, I genuinely desired to follow God. But after I entered high school, I wasn’t traveling the “straight and narrow path” Christian parents hope their children will walk on.

After letting my sin nature take the reins for a time, I’d repent “for real” and go a few months keeping my focus on God. But inevitably I would fall back into the same destructive sin. I repented so often, I hardly believed myself.

While outwardly I looked like a typical rebellious teen, inwardly I was crying out to God for help the only way I knew how—through prayer. When I looked through my journal years later, I found prayer after prayer begging God to intervene. Even in my “rebellion,” I hadn’t stopped seeking Him. Why did I turn back to Him over and over again?

Jeremiah 17:7–8 compares someone who trusts in God to a tree. It reads:

The person who trusts in the Lord,

whose confidence indeed is the Lord, is blessed.

He will be like a tree planted by water:

it sends its roots out toward a stream,

it doesn’t fear when heat comes,

and its foliage remains green.

It will not worry in a year of drought

or cease producing fruit.

My high school years were far from the model of unwavering trust in God that Jeremiah talks about. But they do model the power of a relationship with God. Aside from when I prayed to receive Christ at age eight, the majority of my prayer life as a child looked mundane. Yet, like the roots of a tree, all those little moments with God strengthened my relationship with Him.

Despite my attempts to ignore God’s tug on my heart so I could do as I pleased, I couldn’t walk away. And at the center of that relationship was prayer. It was through prayer that my relationship with Him began. It was through prayer that I wrestled with the desires of my heart. It was through prayer that I confessed my sins to God and He renewed me over and over again.

Father, may [child’s name’s] spiritual roots grow deep. I trust in Your Word that You are growing and strengthening those roots every day, even though I can’t see them. Amen.