Thursday, July 31, 2014

Rooted And Built Up In Him

"As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving."
Colossians 2:6, 7 (NKJV)

The most important part of any plant is the root, without a good root system a plant will die.  You can pull the leaves off of a plant but if the root is strong the plant will still survive.  Roots absorb water and minerals from the soil to help the plant grow, roots give plants stability, and roots even store extra nutrients for future use by the plant.  Most of the time you don't see the roots of a plant but if the root is not healthy that will eventually be seen on the visible part of the plant.  A plant will not live very long if it is separated from its roots, everything a plant does is connected to its roots.

In Colossians 2 Paul talks about being rooted and built up in Jesus.  We have already received Jesus and now our walk, our life in Him, is connected to our roots in Him.  We know that our life is hidden in Christ and that He is our life (Colossians 3:3, 4) and that the life we now live we live by faith in Him (Galatians 2:20).  A strong, successful Christian life is one that has a strong connection to its roots.  Our life will never develop and grow the way it should if we do not take advantage of the life that comes from our roots in God.  Everything we do depends on our being rooted in God through Jesus Christ.

How do we develop a strong spiritual root system?  It all starts with maintaining our connection to God in a daily, living relationship with Him.  We need to focus on drawing our life, strength, and stability from God though His Word and through spending time with Him in prayer; there is no substitute for this.  We can be busy for God, we can do all the right things, we can say all the right words, but if our relationship with God is not strong it will show up in our life.  First of all, no matter what is happening in life, maintain a strong root system in God and then you can do great things for God.

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