March 19
Be Rooted in God Each Day (2)
But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people. ––2 Timothy 3:1-5
Every word, every picture, every scripture, every principle, and every practice shared up to this point in our conversation about God’s love has been for the express purpose of—you guessed it—rooting!
Without a clear, personal connection to the truest truths concerning how God fully accepts, fully loves, and fully defines us through Christ, all bets are off for any lasting, healthy expression of faith in Him. I mean, THAT is Christianity right there: We come to appropriate the power of our identity in Christ so we can help others identify with Christ. The deeper we root, the more we can accomplish that goal.
So many times in my life, I have had God’s process upside down in my spiritual journey. A lot of building up, growing in knowledge, and overflowing in activity, and concurrently, a lot of neglecting the root system. I got top heavy. If you live in one of our nation’s tornado or hurricane zones, you know what downed trees are all about. Out here in California, we actually do get strong storms that topple trees—on top of mudslides and coastal flooding.
When the velocity of the wind is greater than the strength of any given tree’s roots, over it goes. Think of the enemy as the storm: if his “velocity” is greater than your spiritual root system, down you go. And that’s what Satan tried to do to me. I got focused on the outer man. I put a lot of energy into maintaining disciplines, scheduling activities, and controlling appearances. I was deep into my perceptions of what I thought the Christian life was at the expense of the Gardener’s process.
This upside-down way of living fits our culture but doesn’t align with God’s process. Paul put it this way: these folks have a form of godliness but deny its power. In today’s verse, he even says to have nothing to do with such people.
There is no such thing as quick, quality spiritual growth. The quick gains, the spiritual sprints, and shiny achievements run out of gas and lose their luster in the face of mighty storms and wildfires that expose how deep our rooting in God’s love actually is. We have what we think is a life that will support us for the duration, but we’re mistaken. Our shallow-rooted lives do the job—sometimes for decades—but the root system isn’t able to support the persona we have so proudly built above ground. We are top heavy. But that’s just one side of the problem.
Below ground is the danger of root rot. When we aren’t rooting deeply in God’s love, our unhealed fears and insecurities will take over below the surface. This creates perfect conditions for collapse and a scarcity of the Spirit. The mounting pressures of life, along with poor rooting, causes hairline fractures in the base of our spiritual lives.
We can sense it happening, but with so much going on above ground, we tell ourselves, It can’t be! Look at what I’ve become. Look at how much I know. Look at the life I’ve built. I’m so disciplined. People and circumstances around me need to change, not me. We simply will not let go of what we’ve built, and God will lovingly allow the above-ground man to crumble. The Gardener wants His trees always growing downward so they have the potential to grow upward and outward.
Here’s the gritty truth: there is very little growth without some pain. Sometimes God has to “repot” us and move us from one container (way of thinking or living that is less than He desires for us) to a larger one so we can grow. It’s an uncomfortable and sometimes painful process, but absolutely critical.
Lord, strip away any false belief systems I may have and send my roots deeper into You.