As I’ve been praying about what to write about this week the Lord reminded me of a picture I drew back in 2015. It’s not like some masterpiece, it’s a quick “visual” as I was processing what the Lord was saying. Today I want to talk about our roots, our foundation.
If you know me well you know I love trees. Looove trees! I love to look at them, climb them, watch leaves fall from them… Actually, as I type, my sliding door is open and leaves are falling from oak trees outside. That always makes me smile and feel like the Lord is saying “I love you” (because He knows how much I love it). Anyway! If you look at the tall, big, strong trees you’ll notice that you don’t usually see their roots because they go deep into the ground. If you look at small scrawny trees their roots are small, not very deep, and all over the place. Actually, just yesterday a tree was uprooted in the building next to mine because its roots were breaking and messing up the sidewalk.
“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” Colossians 2:6-7
(Picture from November 2015)
We all have a foundation in Christ. It is our job to grow and strengthen our faith. Our relationship with God must be first, we must be grounded and rooted in Him, continually growing.
What fruit are you bearing?
If your relationship with God is suffering, if you don’t take time to cultivate your relationship with Him, then everything else will suffer. You will not hear His voice, will be short-tempered, selfish, desiring ungodly relationships, secluded, not worshiping the Lord, spending time on worthless things.
If your relationship with God is thriving, you let God rule in your life, you let Him be enough in every area of your life when you are rooted in Him, you will bear much fruit. You will show love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, self-control, you will hear from God, you will take time for others.
How do we grow our roots you ask? I’m glad you asked. 🙂
Read your Bible! Get in the Word! God has given us all we need in His Word. He gave us an “instruction manual”, if you will, on how to cultivate our relationship. Talking to the Lord and spending time with Him only on Sunday mornings at church is not enough. Remember the trees I mentioned? Usually, the tall, strong, big ones that you see, their roots go deep, you don’t see them. That is like our relationship with God. Spend time with Him when no one is looking, get alone with Him, get in your secret place, worship Him where no one can hear you when no one can see you. Imagine a relationship that you have, whether it’s a friend, spouse, whatever. What if they only spent time with you, talked to you, showed you any type of love when you were around people, only posted it on social media, or during church on Sunday. Every other time throughout the week they just pretty much ignored you, unless of course, they needed something. Would your relationship be rooted and grounded? No. You spend time with that person, you tell that person you care about them, you learn that person and get to know them. The same is true for our relationship with God. Get to know Him. Read your Word. Worship Him. Spend time in prayer. Set aside time for just you and Him.
“But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.” Matthew 13:21
Sometimes in our lives trials come, persecution, “life happens”, and storms come. Whether that is in our relationships, personal trials, whatever it may be. We can become overwhelmed. I live in Florida and we have tropical storms and hurricanes. During a storm, trees are blown around, pulled and pushed by the wind and rain. If the roots are not deep the tree may be pulled up from the ground. If the roots go deep and are secure the wind and rain will come but the tree will not be moved.
When the storms of life come, when everything around you feels like a swirling hurricane. Where are your roots? Do you find yourself running all over the place from one thing to the next, one person to the other in hopes that they have some answer for you? Like the roots of trees that lay on the surface stretching all over the place with confusion and interrupting the foundation of others? Or do you find yourself standing firm, being still, being certain of who holds your future?
Friends, I encourage you to get into your Word today. Get to know your Savior, your Source. Take time to be alone with Him and cultivate your relationship with Him. You need deep roots and He wants to spend time with you.