Strongly Rooted

Johannes Facius, who used to teach a course called, ‘Sitting at the Feet of Jesus’, told the story of how he was visiting a friend one day. He was chatting with him while he was watering his garden, after a long, dry period. As his friend went round with his hose, Johannes noticed that he missed out one plant with beautiful yellow flowers, so he asked his friend what this dear little plant had done to deserve not to be watered. His friend replied that this plant had been brought from the Negev desert area of Israel when he had visited several years earlier.

Because it was a desert plant, if he watered it, it would die, as it was supposed to put its roots deep down into the soil to find water. That is what gave it life. If he watered it, the roots would shrivel up and die. It had to search for water to enable its roots to grow strong and secure. Then it could display its beauty.

It got me thinking whether our roots are shrivelled up, or whether we are pushing down deep into the soil of the word, so that we will produce the beautiful fruit we were designed to produce. It is so easy to allow others to feed us, and we can become lazy at pressing into God’s word and letting our roots grow strong in Him. It is only as we press into the truth of God’s word that the Spirit reveals the hidden truths to us which will feed and nourish us. This is how we can grow into strong disciples, displaying His glory in our lives.

None of us know what the days ahead hold, but we do know that we need to be strong in the Lord in our own individual walk with Him. We can only do that by becoming more and more dependent on His strength, not on anybody else’s.

As in the scripture above says, we need to allow our roots to grow down into God’s love, so that we will be able to keep strong. We need to do this even more these days, because there is so much happening in the world which is not godly. We need to be pressing into the Lord’s love and reading and meditating on His word. Then we will know the truth of God’s word and be prepared for whatever the Lord has ahead.

Prayer: Dear Lord, help me to be always seeking and searching deeply in Your word, so that I will constantly be growing in You. Forgive me for the times when I have depended solely on others rather than searching out the deep nuggets of truth hidden in Your word. Lead me on today to be deeply rooted in the truth of Your word, so I will serve You faithfully. Amen.