Jeremiah 17:5-10
Thus says the LORD: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his arm, whose heart turns away from the LORD. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. “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.” The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it? “I the LORD search the mind and try the heart, to give to every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”
Homily:
The flesh is a wasting asset.
Nothing you invest in it will reverse its designed decline. Those who build on it require a lot of preservatives. Sadly, even preservatives have a shelf-life.
There is another way. It removes the focus from a wasting asset to a life-giving spring. It shifts attention from the flesh to the spirit.
What is the way? Obedience to the life-giving Word.