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“We are people who spend our lives being apprenticed to our master, Jesus Christ. We are in a growing-learning relationship, always. A disciple is a learner, not in the academic setting of a schoolroom, rather at the work site of a craftsman.” — Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction
Being rooted in Christ means that we cannot do anything apart from Him. Jesus is the true vine, and to be deeply rooted in Christ, we must admit that we depend on God for everything in our life.
Humbling yourself before the Lord means admitting that you need Him and that you can’t do anything without Him. It means being totally dependent on God as the source of everything in your life. When we do this, we will find ourselves growing to want to know God more intimately.
John 15:4 says, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.”
I was watching this gardening show last night, and the professional gardener was talking about when planting, you have to loosen the roots, which I knew but then they explained why. They said we loosen the roots so the plants know they can grow down deep.
A bit later, they were talking about how plants in pots, their roots can just bunch up and grow in circles because there is nowhere else for them to go.
I thought those are both interesting ways to think about how growth happens. We can either be led to grow deeper, or we can sometimes be stuck and just keep going in circles facing the same problems.
Sometimes when facing the same problems, it can be because God is wanting us to continue to learn something from it and then grow past it. One way to ensure growth is to make sure we are staying in the Word. When we stay in the Word, our soil enriches, and growth will come.
Matthew 13:23 says, “The seed that fell on good soil represents those who truly hear and understand God’s Word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!”
God loosens the soil of our hearts and lives so we can grow in the direction He is guiding us to grow in order to be fruitful for His glory.
Thinking about the gardener saying that we loosen the plant's roots so it knows it can grow deep, that’s an interesting concept.
We can be complacent sometimes and not know we are able to grow in a particular area because we don’t have direction. When we turn to God and to other Christ followers, we can then loosen up and learn how to grow in directions we have never grown before.
Colossians 2:7 says, “Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”
If you feel like you are stuck or in need of a change, turn to God and let Him guide you.