Deeply Rooted

 

Friday, November 12, 2021

And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him.  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.  Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.  For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.  So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.  Colossians 2:6-10

Following anything closely creates roots; just ask a drug addict, or a sports fan.  It works positively in a person’s life just as certainly as it can have a negative result.  If you follow good directions, you wind up where you wanted to go.  If you hear good directions, but decide to ignore what you heard, your chances of winding up in the place you want to be diminish exponentially.  At the very least, the trip becomes harder and depletes more resources.

Paul was encouraging the Colossian believers to follow Christ.  Indeed, Paul’s advice was not just following, but following closely enough to let the roots of their lives become entwined with the Messiah.  In contrast Paul warns them to be cautious of empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking. 

This short paragraph explores the possibilities of living the surrendered life of a follower of Christ from the sublime to the ridiculous in 78 words.  That is precise direction-giving!  But truth be told, you don’t need a lot of words when you’ve just pointed at the gold standard.  (Boy…you don’t know how hard it was for a preacher to write/speak those words about needing less words!)

For You Today

In the matter of checking how deeply your roots are becoming grafted-in to the Master’s, start here:

          1.    Go over your checkbook to see where your stewardship has rooted

          2.    Look at this year’s calendar to see where your feet want to go

          3.    Ask…do I want to meditate on Scripture, or snap on the TV

          4.    Try to dredge up the last time you shared Christ with a perfect stranger

Those are only a few suggestions…but how the roots are progressing has a lot to do with the kind of soil in which they’re planted.  And as a Christian, you will never be fully-mature in Christ unless He has all of you…down to your root ball.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title and Other Images:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

For another post on this theme see “Where Are You Going?”