Re-Rooted

Divine Inspirations | by Dee Davis

“Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him.” — Jeremiah 17:7

There are times in life when everything around us can feel a little dry.

Caregiving. Aging parents. Adult children. Changes in our bodies. Responsibilities that don’t seem to lessen. Expectations—our own and everyone else’s.

Before we realize it, we can find ourselves running on empty while still trying to convince ourselves that we are fine.

And somewhere along the way, without intentionally doing so, we can begin depending more on our own strength than on God.

Jeremiah 17 gives us two very different pictures.

One is a shrub in the desert.

“Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the LORD.”

— Jeremiah 17:5

This person is surviving, but not flourishing. Jeremiah says the shrub lives in dry places and doesn’t even recognize prosperity when it comes.

That part caught my attention.

Because sometimes we can become so accustomed to surviving that we don’t recognize what God is doing around us. We keep pushing. Fixing. Managing. Carrying. Controlling.

We tell ourselves, I’ve got this.

But perhaps the better confession is:

“God, I need You in this.”

Then Jeremiah gives us another picture.

A tree planted beside the water.

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream.”

— Jeremiah 17:7–8

The heat still comes.

The drought still comes.

But the tree responds differently because of where its roots are planted.

Its leaves remain green.

It does not have to live anxiously when the dry months come.

And perhaps my favorite part—it never fails to bear fruit.

Notice that God never promised the tree an environment without heat. Its strength came from having roots that reached somewhere deeper than its circumstances.

And so must ours.

Search Me, Lord

Then Jeremiah takes us beneath what everyone else can see:

“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind…”

— Jeremiah 17:9–10

This is where re-rooting gets personal.

Because sometimes we don’t know what we have begun trusting until God reveals it.

We can call it responsibility when underneath it is fear.

We can call it keeping the peace when underneath it is people-pleasing.

We can call it strength when underneath it is our inability to surrender control.

Our hearts can quietly convince us:

If I just do more, I will be safe.

If I keep everyone happy, I will be useful and loved.

If I hold everything together, nothing will fall apart.

But God sees beneath what we do to why we do it.

That is why I need Him to search me. How about you?

“Lord, show me what I cannot see about myself.”

Not to condemn me.

Not to shame me.

But because sometimes God has to show us where our roots have gone before He can redirect them.

Re-Rooted

Maybe you have been feeling a little dry lately.

Maybe you are tired from carrying responsibilities that once seemed manageable.

Maybe circumstances have caused you to reach for control, approval, people, habits—or your own strength—before reaching for God.

There is no need to pretend.

Bring your heart back to the Stream.

Let His Word nourish you.

Let His Spirit strengthen you.

Let prayer become more than another item on your list; let it become the place where you release what you were never meant to carry alone.

And let God lovingly examine the places within you that need to be re-rooted.

Because the promise of Jeremiah 17 isn’t that drought will never come.

The promise is that drought does not have to determine what happens within you.

When your roots are in God, you can remain steady when life is uncertain.

You can remain nourished when circumstances feel dry.

And yes—you can still bear fruit.

Not because you have learned to hold everything together.

But because your roots have found their Source.

Pause & Reflect

Ask yourself:

-Where have I been depending on my own strength instead of God’s?

-What has my heart quietly begun trusting for security, approval, or peace?

Then pray:

Lord, search my heart. Show me anything I have rooted myself in more deeply than You. Draw my roots back to Your presence, Your Word, and Your truth. When life feels dry, teach me not merely to survive, but to remain connected to You. Re-root me until my confidence rests in You again. Amen.

“Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him.” — Jeremiah 17:7

You may be walking through dry ground.

But dry ground does not mean you have to have dry roots.

Stay near the Stream.

Stay rooted in God.

Keep growing, stay encouraged and be blessed.