Let your roots grow deep

Let your roots grow deep

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. – Colossians 2:7

Ephesians 3:16-19

 16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources, he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.

 17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.

 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.

 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

An ongoing quest of modern-day agriculture is to intensify crop production and sustainability. The challenge is two-pronged. On the one hand, there is the desire and need to increase food and biomass production. On the other hand, there is the need to respond to more significant weather variability effectively. Current agricultural research has demonstrated the importance of deep-rooting of crops.

Deep rooting can be defined as dealing with the soil from 3 to 15 feet in depth.

A simple solution is to use subsoils more efficiently. This can be efficiently done via deep rooting.

Deep roots are essential for healthy, vibrant, powerful spiritual life and development. Children of the King must be firmly rooted by faith in the Father’s love. “This is the true and abiding source of spiritual strength and of all other manifestations of the divine life”  (Hughes). Through the strengthening of the inner person by God’s Spirit and Christ’s indwelling in their hearts, children of the King are to be established in love (O’Brien).

Ephesians 3:17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.

It may seem a bit odd that Paul would pray that the Lord Jesus Christ might make His home the hearts of children of the King. Why is this so? Because the Scriptures clearly teach that the Lord Jesus Christ already lives in each child of the King.

Romans 8:9 But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

The focus of this request is not on the initial indwelling of Christ but on His continual presence. The verb used in this prayer signifies a permanent indwelling rather than some temporary abode. Further, while Christ already dwells in every child of the King, Paul focuses on and prays for His indwelling with power (ESV Notes).

REFLECT & PRAY

The secret of strength is the abiding presence of the Lord Jesus Christ within our lives. He will gladly come into our lives. He awaits our invitation to bring us His strength (Barclay).

Father encourage me to allow the Lord Jesus Christ to comfortably abide within my heart in the fertile soil of Your love. At the same time, strengthen me to stay in Your love.

INSIGHT

The verb used by Paul in Ephesians 3:17 is a strong one. The Greek term translated as dwell in your heart is katoikeo. Katoikeo signifies a permanent indwelling, settling down rather than some temporary abiding.

Katoikeo metaphorically connotes the idea of the Lord Jesus Christ, via the personal choice of each child of the King, being permitted to settle down and to take up complete residence by the Holy Spirit in our hearts. The Lord Jesus Christ is pictured as making Himself at home and becoming comfortable within our hearts. Our hearts are intended to become His dwelling place.

Something marvelous happens when we allow Him to make Himself comfortable in our hearts. We become rooted and established/grounded in the rich soil of the Father’s love.

“Paul mixes his metaphors. Rooted is agricultural, and established (literally, founded) is architectural. But their significance is perfectly parallel. Like trees, our lives are to send down roots deep and wide into the soil of love. Like buildings, the edifices of our lives here on earth are to have deep, solid foundations of love. If we are properly rooted and properly constructed on a foundation of love, nothing will be able to shake us” (Hughes).

The Greek term translated as rooted is rhizome. Rhizome has the sense of being firmly rooted, established, constant, or strengthened by roots. The English word rhizome is derived from this Greek word. It connotes figuratively spiritual stability, being firmly established or strengthened.

The Greek word translated as established or grounded is themelioo. Themelioo offers a firm basis for belief, choices, and practice.

Being rooted and established in the Father’s love provides the necessary base for the superstructure of belief, confidence, and growth of all children of the King.

But there is more! The comfortable presence of the Lord Jesus Christ strengthens our inner being. His nearness and overflowing love provide the basis for a life of faith, the Spirit-filled life.

What is a life of faith? Faith is believing what God has promised, he will do. Faith is not a power or something we drum up inside ourselves. Faith is trusting that God will honor His promises. That’s all there is to it. Children of the King go about our lives, making decisions, handling crises, raising our families, and so on, trusting and believing that the Father will do what He said He would do (Stanley).

Not only is the Father there to guide us continually will make us into a well-watered beautiful garden of His design. We become a pleasant, warm source of loveliness, grace, and encouragement to others. We become like a well-watered garden that all can admire and enjoy and partake of.

Isaiah 58:11  The LORD will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring.

This remarkable figure can only be truly appreciated against the background of the dry and desolate territory of the Near East.

Children of the King are enabled to live lives that exemplify and show off the Lord Jesus Christ. It is incumbent upon us to choose to allow the Lord Jesus Christ access to the deepest recesses of our hearts, soul, and mind. Our task is to let him abide in us as we abide in him (John 15).

How can we actualize these beautiful promises in our lives? We chose to open our hearts to allow the Lord Jesus Christ to take up full and complete residence. We seek to develop a “lifestyle of love” through faith via prayer and practice (Hughes).

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© Dr. H 2022