Deeply Rooted In God’s Word

Being deeply rooted in God’s Word will enable us to successfully overcome and thrive after a life storm. If not, we will use human ideas to numb our pain, which will never solve the issue long term.

God created us to live abundantly our entire lives“I have come so that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10)

A set back in life or a major catastrophe wasn’t meant to derail us. These things come due to sin in the world. For instance, if a company cut corners and built a bridge with inferior steel and it later collapsed, killing our loved one, God is not to blame. He gave us free will to live our life any way we please. Greed in the world caused this catastrophe that harmed human beings. BUT God can help us surmount our pain and go on to live a full life.

God is the Creator of the heavens and the earth and therefore His Word is the deep indisputable root of life. Everyone not rooted on God’s Word is a person living according to their own truth, which will cause pain and problems to more than just the individual.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” (John 1:1)

This verse tells us that God is His Word. Another way to say this is that God is as good as His Word. He will do all that He said if we stay in faith, act in accordance with His guidlines and wait to receive our promised blessing.

Going back to the bridge scenario, if that bridge company was a Christian company that based its mission statement on God’s teaching, they would care more about people than profit. They would know from Scripture, that doing life God’s way will never cause a company to be less profitable. God’s way may seem counterintuitive to our human thinking, but the Lord sees the big picture. He sees the pitfalls of greed and the open door to the enemy both of which open a door to loss and catastrophe.

God Helps Us To Dig Our Roots of Faith Deep

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness”(2 Tim 3:16)

We may not be able to understand Scripture when we initially pick up the Bible, or we may not like what we read because it seems to put boundaries around our life. But the more we sit with the Bible, studying it as if we were to have a weekly exam, we will understand that we can never be worse off following the Lord’s guiding principles. The Bible is available to anyone and the Holy Spirit within us allows us to understand what we are reading.

“If you search for me with your whole heart you will find me.” (Jer 29:13)

The Bible is God’s instruction manual to life and living within the guiding principles will not always make sense to us- but that is what faith is all about. As the saying goes “no guts, no glory” but the glory and the praise will not be our own, it will go to the Lord who expertly works out our life when we choose to have the faith (guts) to trust His guidelines.

Deep Roots Secure Life

I was reminded that deep roots secure life when I witnessed an event in nature. The Bible reveals that this is oftentimes the case.

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”(Rom 1:20)

My dogs and I were walking in a park after a storm and came upon a fallen tree. It was a large tree, probably 20 feet high, lush, green and healthy. I was confused as to why a healthy looking, robust tree could fall onto its side, pulling up the roots system in only a mild storm. As I examined the roots of the tree, I noticed it didn’t have the typical root ball you would normally see. This tree had a large flat mass of roots that didn’t penetrate the earth more that 12 inches. It looked like a Christmas tree skirt of roots.

Why didn’t the tree dig deeper roots to secure itself I thought? I observed the landscape of that area and saw that the tree sat in a depression. The tree had no need to dig deep roots to reach water. It had all the water it needed right there pooled around its trunk. The water was readily available and the sun hit the tree all day long. The tree simply drank in the water and basked in the sun and grew taller and taller. Lacking a deep root system meant that the tree had no anchor to hold it secure when this mild storm came through.

Storms Of Life Can Lead To Deep Roots

Taking a lesson from this fallen tree, we learn that the roots of life matter.

What anchors your/my life?

Is it money? If so, what happens when we make a poor investment and it crashes and leaves us in a desperate situation?

Is our anchor a relationship? What happens when that person betrays us and leaves? Will we lose our happiness and forever become bitter?

God should be our anchor. He is capable of anchoring us like a palm tree- a tree that can bend 50 degrees in severe wind and bounce right back.

Unless we encounter difficult circumstances and harsh conditions at various times in our lives, we have no reason to seek God- no reason to lean in to God’s Word for wisdom and help. We essentially say “God, I got this, you can go and help someone else.”

During a life storm, it is extremely difficult to see that there is an eternal purpose to our suffering, but it’s up to us whether or not we find it. Our searching for help must lead us to our Creator, the only omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent person who can lead us out of our pain. Our inability to tackle our problem efficiently is the means by which we can find true life.

Spontaneously answering an urgent prayer request would certainly make us momentarily happy, but it won’t change our life course. Having our need met immediately would probably cause us to continue to live via our limited human wisdom, not knowing we are still on a one way road headed for pain. Our quick answer would certainly make us happy in the short term but it would not be best for us long term.

Deep Roots Occur After Reading Divine Wisdom

““For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”(Is 55:8-9)

For example, on that same walk, my dogs were getting hot and in need of a drink. They saw a pond and pulled at the leashes to try to get near enough to drink. I knew that the water was laden with chemicals to keep down the weeds as well as make the color more appealing. I wouldn’t let my dogs drink the pond water. The only thing my dogs knew was that they were thirsty and I was withholding what seemed to be good. They had no idea that by letting them have what they wanted, they would’ve suffered unnecessary sickness and pain.

Unless we are deeply rooted in God’s Word, we may take the attitude that God is harsh if we don’t get our desires met immediately. I have labeled God as harsh myself. But as I stayed in faith continuing to follow the Lord and read His Word even though He was allowing me to suffer, I later learned that answering my prayer request would have kept me from the best end result. I would’ve missed out on my deep relationship with the Lord who now guides me daily. I also wouldn’t have God’s knowledge and wisdom to pass on to the next generation. God is more concerned about spreading His Good News to future generations than giving us an immediate remedy.

“I lift my hands to you in prayer, I thirst for you as a parched land thirsts for rain.”(Ps 143:6 NLT)

Digging deep roots in God’s wisdom should be everyone’s ultimate goal. Reading God’s Word is akin to being tutored by Him. Nothing compares to God’s wisdom. No amount of money will ever give us the peace, joy, health, healing ability and prosperity that God can.

“Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither- whatever they do prospers.”(Psalm 1:1-3)

The aforementioned tree is planted near streams of water. Therefore, it needs to dig its roots deep towards the refreshing water. And this is what we need to do with the Lord. Sit next to Him, read, pray drink in and meditate on His Word. The instruction we receive will give us rock solid wisdom to guide our lives and those of our children. This will model what a relationship with Jesus is, hopefully leading our children to develop the same. And this, my reader, is our ultimate purpose. To pass onto others the wisdom and saving power of the Lord Jesus Christ. The only solid foundation on which to build our lives.

Food For Thought,

Lisa