Would you describe yourself as flourishing? Does ministry seem always productive and your home life regularly positive? Are you often mentally stimulated, physically active, and spiritually enriched?

Or do you feel more stagnant or even like you’re wasting away? Ministry might seem fruitless; things at home could be hard. Maybe you’re in a rut of physical inactivity or a dry season spiritually.

These verses from Psalm 92 describe the righteous flourishing like a healthy, sturdy tree. They echo the imagery from Psalm 1 of the blessed man being like a tree firmly planted by streams of water and bearing its fruit – images of flourishing, of being planted.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes cross-cultural living doesn’t feel very planted and sturdy to me. It can feel unstable and always-changing; just as one facet of life becomes routine, something else changes. Living life in a foreign language leads to continual uncertainties. Ministry sometimes changes quickly due to unforeseen circumstances or a breakdown in communication among a team. Visa problems can at best cause high levels of stress and at worst result in being uprooted from a country. Even regular, planned-for furloughs often bring with them instability, change, and a confusing mixture of emotions.

The beautiful truth of these verses from Psalm 92 is that the flourishing state of the righteous has nothing to do with anything he or she did, does, or will do. God’s people, you and I, flourish because we are connected to Him, united to Him in Christ. Even when we go through dry or hard seasons in life, God never changes. He is steady and faithful; we are “planted in the house of the Lord” as we abide in Him. Our status as “righteous” finds its foundation in Jesus’ work on the cross – His taking our sin upon Himself and imputing to us His righteousness. Nothing you and I do, nothing that happens to us or emotion we feel, can alter that great and gracious reality.

Even if you don’t feel like you are flourishing today, rejoice in the fact that, in Christ, you are like a palm tree or a cedar of Lebanon planted firmly in God’s grace!