Jeremiah 17:7-8
Rooted in the Word
5 pages · Printable PDF
“Blessed is the man who trusts in 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.”
This is a verse-mapping worksheet. You will take two verses apart word by word, then draw what they describe. It is slower than reading a chapter, and that is the point.
1 · Write it out
Copy Jeremiah 17:7-8 by hand in the space provided. Handwriting slows reading to the speed of thinking.
Circle every verb. What is the tree actually doing?
Box every condition (“when heat comes,” “in the year of drought”).
Underline the promise attached to each condition.
2 · Word study
Pick three words and look them up. Write a plain-language definition for each.
Trusts — what does it mean here, practically?
Planted — who does the planting, and what does that imply?
Anxious — what is the tree not doing, even in drought?
3 · Cross-references
Read these alongside the passage and note one sentence for each.
Psalm 1:1-3 — what is added to the picture?
Colossians 2:6-7 — what does “rooted” look like in Christ?
Matthew 7:24-27 — what is the difference between two builders?
4 · The root-and-fruit diagram
Draw a simple tree. Below the line write your roots; above it write the fruit you hope for. Be specific in both.
Roots (what I return to daily, weekly, quietly):
The stream (where my roots are actually reaching for water):
Fruit I am asking God for this fall:
Where the roots do not yet match the fruit:
5 · When the heat comes
Steadiness is decided before the drought, not during it.
The last dry season I walked through, and what held:
What did not hold:
One root I will deepen this month, named as a specific practice and time:
Come back to your diagram at the end of September and add anything God grew that you did not plan for.
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