Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Rooted and Grounded

In nature, a tree that goes through periods of dryness is better able to withstand longer periods of dought as well as storms.  Times of dryness can stimulate roots to penetrate deeper into the soil in search of groundwater.  Trees that go through this are trees that are better able to survive drought and storms than those with shallow root systems. 

Some people have the gift of faith.  These people are like trees who have a tap root that grows down deep from the moment of germination.  When storms blow or drought comes, these people have this gift of faith to get them through. 

The rest of us, like me, have faith that needs growing and development.  Rather than being fully convinced from "germination," our faith has moments when we are fully conviced of the truth of God's character and have other moments when we doubt. For us, we need periods of dryness and drought to force our taproot down if we will seek the Lord in those moments instead of whithering up and dying.  The whole purpose of seasons of desert and drought are to cause our roots to go deeper in search for living water.  The deeper our roots have gone the easier it is to withstand bigger storms and longer drought, while those whose roots have not gone deep are easily uprooted.

Jeremiah 17:7-8 "But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. He has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit."

Eph 3 "..that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."

A lot of my last few blog posts have probably come across a bit "bi-polar" as a result of my current "storm" in life.  The journey into believing the truth of God's character has been a bumpy/windy one especially the last two and half years, but more specifically the last few months, and I have not arrived at a place of peace with it yet. My taproot is still on its journey to deeper waters; growing, seeking, searching, and winding around the burried boulders in the way.

On the one hand I while I know the truth in my head, it has yet to fully penetrate my heart. Or, rather it penetrates it on some days (those are the joyful, excited posts) and not on others (when you get angry, disappointed posts like the one from last week).

In general, the body of Christ does not know how to handle people who are in seasons of the Lord allowing storms to come into their life.  There is no one but Him who can give any of us a greater amount of faith.  Anything good we have comes first from Him.....especially faith. (Eph. 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.) 

I need more faith.

Blessings,
Erin

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