The Secret of Fruitfulness in the Midst of Heat and Drought
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.
He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit.”—Jer. 17:7, 8
In my last post, I introduced the three trees model developed by David Powlison to help us visualize the process of change. Here’s a diagram from Canyon Hills Counseling diagrams that can help you to follow along in the series.
At the top is the sun or the “heat.” On the right side is a thorny bush, while on the left side is a fruitful tree. And right in the center is the cross, which serves as the third “tree.”
This is a basic starting point for many biblical counselors, but I have shared this with many others who desire to grow in their faith. It has been a very helpful tool for me, as a lay person, to understand Scripture’s means of growth and change. In the rest of this series, I’ll be unpacking the diagram in eight posts:
The “heat” or situation
Our negative responses to the heat
The sinful root behind our negative responses
The ripple effects of these choices—which often create more “heat”
The key to true change: the cross of Christ (the central “tree”)
Turning towards God with the help of the Holy Spirit
Moving in love towards others with the power of the Holy Spirit
The anticipation of blessing as we trust God in change, ultimately found in Christ
In this post, let’s start at the top, with the “heat.”
What is the heat?
The heat is our context.
The simplest way to explain the “heat” is the external pressures on our lives. It is the context in which we live. They can be
The things in our world that come at us from without
The voices of culture that confuse, distort, or tempt us directly and subtly with its rival worldview, persuading and luring us away from our focus on God, who gives life and alone deserves our worship
The sheer overwhelm of the options and opportunities in life—the pressure of decision making between two good things
The many needs and hurts of other people that demand our attention and care, often at inconvenient times or at cost to us
The simple reality that we are different people seeing life in different ways that rubs against us and create conflict or leads to comparisons and judgments
Outward circumstances and struggles in your job or in your family
The consequences of poor choices we are now living with
General hardships and troubles of living in a fallen world: flat tires, traffic, identity theft, etc.
Losses: death—loss of people, dreams, or anything cherished like community or employment, but also losses that come with transition from one season of life to another
Coming from Satan himself in the form of temptation, persecution, or discouragement
The good things in life: ironically, even though our blessings are meant for our good, they can lead us to complacency or idolatry of these very blessings
The things in our world that we struggle within
Our bodies: hormones, monthly cycles, allergies, chronic illness, disease, disability, that frustrate, cripple, or limit us in some way
Confusion due to conflicting or misleading counsel from role models, peer pressure to do what everyone else is doing
Personal sin: misplaced worship and pursuits, passions that threaten to overtake us, negative habits we cannot stop doing, laziness in doing what is most pleasing to God, or outright rebellion
Wilderness seasons where you feel disconnected to God, no matter how hard you try
Angry, bitter, resentful, or depressing emotions towards others that darken our mood
Internal voices of fear, anxiety, doubt, or lies that plague us, some of them true and others false
In short, whatever they are, the heat is the total of our many diverse factors working from outside us and from within us.
In his class, Dr. Powlison points out that while we tend to think of heat as negative, it can also be positive as well. Blessings can tempt us to idolatry. Opportunities and options can overwhelm. Marriage, children, a new job with better benefits, a bigger house: all these things can also bring pain with it.
The heat is not determinative.
In other words, we cannot blame the heat in our lives for our actions and responses.
However, this is our sinful tendency from the moment of the fall. What did Adam and Eve do when God confronted them about their sin? They pointed at each other or blamed someone else. We do the same thing.
It is easy for us to blame our angry outburst at the other person or the fact that we’re stressed with work or even the dog. But if we want to truly see change, we need to understand that the heat is not to blame, even though we are want to pin the fault on someone or something else.
To help illustrate this, Dr. Powlison used a plastic disposable water bottle with the top off, filled with water. He asked the class to imagine what would happen if he gave the bottle a big squeeze. Obviously, water would come spilling out of the bottle. Why? Because water was in the bottle.
Now let’s imagine that in the bottle, there is another kind of liquid, say, fruit punch. If you squeeze the bottle again, fruit punch would come out. If it had gasoline, gasoline would come out.
Dr. Powlison concluded his illustration by comparing the heat of life to the “squeeze” we feel. In each case, the squeeze was the same, but what came out of the bottle depended on what was in it. Likewise, no matter what the “squeeze” or the “heat,” what comes out of us, be it anger, envy, pride, fear, gossip, or whatever we see, is not because of the heat but because of what is already inside our hearts.
This realization was huge for me as I was dealing with the heat of our adoption. It was also very humbling because no longer can I blame my anger on my daughter, my husband, or the difficulties her addition into our family instigated. In order for me to see change, I needed to understand that I cannot blame her or anyone else for the situation I was in.
This leads to one last point about the heat.
The heat reveals our hearts.
Even if the heat is not determinative, it does a serve an important purpose in the change process: it shows us what is in our hearts—and that is usually where we discover what needs to change.
The good news about this is that it is often very hard to change the heat. We cannot undo the arrival of a baby into the family (at least not in a godly way). We cannot hide ourselves from the culture’s voices. We cannot prevent stressors from coming at us by hiding all day. And even then, we will encounter problems in ourselves!
No, we cannot change the heat. But the hope is this: with the help of God, we do have agency when it comes to our hearts. We can humbly submit ourselves to Him and ask Him to help us in changing our hearts so that what comes out will reflect Him. With God’s help, we can change from the inside heart so that when squeezed by life, what overflows from us is love, joy, peace, and hope, not the toxic “gasoline” of anger, bitterness, fear, or hopelessness.
Where do I start?
Describe your heat in this season.
If the heat is our context, being aware of some of the ways we are being squeezed and acknowledging them is a start. If you were to describe your situation right now, how would you describe it?
What stressors are you dealing with right now?
What things repeatedly trip you up over and over?
Are there certain people, places, times that are tempting or troubling for you?
What kinds of thoughts are swimming in your mind that create fear, confusion, or anxiety?
What are some blessings in your life that are adding to your worries or your personal expectations for yourself or others?
What tempts you to respond in anger?
What are you trying to get away from—through simply withdrawal or closing yourself off emotionally, mindless scrolling social media for no good purpose to escape your life, excessive and repeated time spent on binge-watching shows, numbing reality with alcohol or drugs, losing yourself in illicit relationships, entertaining suicidal thoughts, etc.?
Ask God to help you make the most of your particular heat.
If the heat is not determinative and it reveals our hearts, this is good news. That means that in the hands of a sovereign God, He is up to something good, even in the worst of situations.
And we know that His intention is always to draw our wayward hearts back to Him. Sometimes the heat is meant to awaken us when we are spiritually lethargic. Sometimes it reveals an area of blindness to sin. Sometimes it is to comfort us by showing us how great He is and how much He loves us. Or sometimes it is to show us how much we need Him in the midst of the wilderness (Deut 8:3).
I don’t know why God has visited you with your particular heat at this time in your life, but we can trust that in our moments of great weakness or deep pain, He is at work for our good (Rom. 8:28). He can and will use it to shape us more into the image of Christ, the One whom we are created to reflect (v. 29).
He will keep pursuing this end in us until we reach glory (Phil. 1:6). So instead of fighting Him, will you accept Him?
Doing this was the first step to change in my own struggles with my daughter. It is hard to humble your heart. It is hard to trust that He knows best when the pain is so intense.
But it is what we need if we really wish to grow. Will you trust Him in it? This is a prayer He delights to answer.
When we do, hope begins to lift our heads, for it opens the door to new possibilities: that even in the midst of heat and drought, God can make us flourish, green and fruitful, as we trust in Him.
