The Key to Flourishing

I was led to read and study Revelation 9:1-12, the chapter on the locusts. As I read verse 4 about God’s command to the locusts not to destroy anything green, a thought leaped out at me.

I realized that the key to remaining safe in any time of terror was to “stay green.” David wrote, “I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever” (Psalm 52:8, NKJV). The “green” that David refers to here signifies spiritual health. It means to flourish, grow, be fruitful. David is telling us, “My health comes from trusting God. I flourish because I turn to him. My trust in him produces spiritual life in me.”

Here is a glorious truth about the power of staying green. “Thus says the Lord; Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord. For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land which is not inhabited” (Jeremiah 17:5-6).

The Lord is warning us, “Don’t trust in man. If you put your faith in human power rather than in me, you’ll be cursed.”

The passage goes on, though, to describe what our faith will produce if we put our trust in the Lord. “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit” (Jeremiah 17:7-8).

As we trust wholly in the Father, we put down roots in his river, and his divine strength—luscious, green, spiritual health—flows in us and through us. While everything around us is decaying, we’ll flourish as green trees, healthy and strong. When the hour of trial comes, we won’t languish or wilt. Instead, our faith will be growing.