March 18
Be Rooted in God Each Day (1)
Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. ––Matthew 7:24-27
Shepherd’s tree (Boscia albitrunca), native to the Kalahari Desert, has the deepest documented roots: more than 70 meters, or 230 feet deep. It displays an astonishing ability to adapt to extreme conditions, in a place that receives only 5-10 inches of rain per year. Even more amazing, the tree with the deepest roots in the world is a fig tree in the Echo Caves of South Africa. This tree has roots of 400 meters deep—more than 1300 feet. That is deeper than the Eiffel Tower is tall (including the Tower’s foundation).
If you’ve ever seen a below-the-ground and above-the-ground rendering of a tree, it looks normal to your eye above the surface and like an X-ray below the surface. We aren’t used to seeing the true reality of a strong and healthy tree—its root system. After a seed is planted in the ground, a healthy tree will show little visible growth above ground in its first years as the primary and most important root—the tap root—extends downward out of the seed.
Though it may seem counterintuitive to you and me, a tree actually has to grow downward before it can successfully grow upward. Rooting determines life and death for a tree, because if it isn’t rooting well, it isn’t searching for nutrients or establishing the structural foundation to support the future growth that is destined to occur above the surface.
God’s process for us involves constantly rooting ourselves in His love.
As the planted ones, we are constantly searching, stretching, and extending ourselves deeper and deeper to get to the supply of God’s love. Without that ongoing quest and without repeated encounters with God’s love, we simply cannot grow or build the wide-ranging network of roots that sustain a strong life in Christ.
Receiving Christ must be followed by a continuous process of being rooted and re-rooted in His love as long as we live. So many times in my journey, I have focused on the above-ground life at the expense of the below-ground process and found myself confused as to why I seemingly didn’t have breakthroughs in my character, my attitudes, and my relationships.
The problem was not up top—in my head, my behaviors, my knowledge, or my disciplines. The problem was that God’s love feeding deep into my heart, my emotions, and my thinking was missing.
Being rooted in God’s love is first because it is what secures His vision and hope in our hearts. How deeply rooted are you? Using a different analogy, it’s not unlike today’s verse, where Jesus taught about the Parable of the Two Houses.
Being shallowly rooted is to build your spiritual house on shifting sands. It takes time to grow spiritual roots—there’s no “Buy Now” option to click. Begin today—ask the Father to reveal areas of your life that need to grow deeper into His soil. Take the time to invest in growing those areas that need tending by the gardener.
Father, I can’t grow spiritual roots on my own—I need your love and wisdom to guide me in my journey.