Pastor Stef's prayer based on Psalm 1

​Lord, you bless the person who does not follow the advice of bad people.
You bless the person who does not live after their sinful desires.
You bless the person who does not disregard your way of life.
 
Lord, you want your children to love your ways and to think about them all the time.
When we do this, we are like a tree that is close to water.
We become healthy and produce lots of good fruit and all at the right time.
We do not become weak or feel like giving up.
Whatever we do is blessed.
 
But things are not like this for people who disregard you.
Those people are like fluff that blows away with the wind.
Those people are not protected by you and have no place with your children.
 
You watch over your children and give them life when they strive after your ways.
But you also make sure that the path sinners take ends in death. 

Devotion by Cora Goodyear
The psalmist here writes of how blessed the man is who delights in the law of the Lord. He says this man is like a tree planted by streams of water. And he compares these men with wicked men who are like chaff that the wind blows away.

Psalm 1:3 “He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not whither. Whatever he does prospers”

Trees come in all kinds of shapes, sizes and colours. Some are gnarled and rotten and others are straight and healthy.

But what is more beautiful to the eye than a straight, healthy tree. Its roots soaked in the water surrounding it. Trees often display their coats of many colours. The branches of some trees droop with fruit seasonally and certain trees have leaves which do not wither.

That is what we look like to God – trees of life. We are fed by rivers of water. Firstly, we are fed with God’s great plan of salvation and secondly, we are fed by His word. Fruit appears on us for the seasons which God ordains and our leaves do not wither. Others pick from the fruit we offer, consume it and hopefully pay it forward.

We are blessed because we separate ourselves from the ungodly and we meditate on God’s word. If we were only one with the ungodly, we would not be watered by God who provides us sustenance. Our roots would be unhealthy, our trunk would become gnarled or bent, our leaves would wither and we would be barren of fruit. We would be unproductive and die, never having served the purpose God had for us.

How pleased God must be when he looks at us and sees trees of life.
​
Point: May we be a tree of life.