Thursday 5 March 2026 - Blessed are those who trust in the Lord

Today is Thursday the 5th of March, in the 2nd week of Lent.

To help us enter into prayer today, we will hear the song Emberi Janje.

I, Judah Earl, sung in Rundee, and so me my God, for it is to you that I pray.

I call to the Lord, He heard my cry, I have no one else but you, Father.

I have placed the Lord ever before me.

Let the beauty of this song of prayer wash over you and place the Lord ever before you, as you listen.

Let the beauty of this song of prayer wash over you and place the Lord ever before you, as you listen.

Let the beauty of this song of prayer wash over you and place the Lord ever before you, as you listen.

Let the beauty of this song of prayer wash over you and place the Lord ever before you, as you listen.

Let the beauty of this song of prayer wash over you and place the Lord ever before you, as you listen.

Today's reading is from the Prophet Jeremiah.

Now give me that time with that time.

Thus says the Lord, cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord.

They should be like a shrub in the desert and shall not see when relief comes.

They should live in the part places of the wilderness in an uninhabited salt land.

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is in the Lord.

They should be like a tree planted by water, sending out his roots by the stream.

It shall not fear when heat comes and its leaves shall stay green.

In the year of drought it is not anxious and it does not cease to bear fruit.

The heart is devious above all else, it's perverse, who can understand it.

I, the Lord, test the mind and search the heart to give to all according to their ways according to the fruit of their doings.

In today's reading Jeremiah calls to mind two kinds of people.

Imagine walking through a desert landscape, take notice of the heat, the breeze, the ground under foot.

You pause at a change in the terrain.

Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings.

Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord.

To one side a desert shrub turns in on itself, branches brittle, surviving on shallow roots, a waiting rain that may never come.

To the other side a sister plant stands tall near running water, roots deep, filled with life.

Ask yourself gently and honestly, which plant resembles your inner life right now.

What voices shape your life?

What voices shape your life?

What voices shape your life?

Notice that the barren plant carries no guilt.

It is misplaced, starved of what it needs.

It has trusted soil that cannot sustain it.

Misplaced trust slowly dries the heart.

What does it mean to be in touch with a greater truth?

It would swish them and love.

As we hear the passage again, consider where your roots are shallow and what brings you

close to living water.

Thus says the Lord, cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make me aflash their

strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord.

They should be like a shrub in the desert and shall not see when relief comes.

They shall live in the part places of the wilderness in an uninhabited salt land,

blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is in the Lord.

They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out his roots by the stream.

It shall not fear when heat comes and its leaves shall stay green.

In the year of drought it is not anxious and it does not cease to bear fruit.

The heart is devious above all else, it is perverse, who can understand it.

I the Lord tests the mind and search the heart to give to all according to their ways,

according to the fruit of their doings.

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord.

In this time of prayer offer your needs to the Lord and rest in God's blessing.

You have given all to me, to you Lord, I return it.

Everything is yours, do with it what you will.

Give me only your love and your grace, that is enough for me, Amen.

Amen.