"They 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. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit." Jeremiah 17:8
"A time to be born, and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,…" Ecclesiastes 3:2 (NIV)
The Bible speaks of a time to plant. Have you ever had a garden or flower patch with beautiful fragrance everywhere, and a storm comes along and washes them all away? Now you're forced to start all over again; it becomes a time to plant, you have a plant that dried up, withered and died. So, you go down to flower field and pick up more. Then you reach down to dig up the dead plant to replace it and it comes up easily because there aren't any roots, even though that plant was nourished the same as all the other plants. It died because there was something missing, it didn't have the root system that was important to draw out the needed food from the soil, or the water. Roots make all the difference in the health of a plant and their presence is made known to us, because the plant either lives or dies; using this as an example paints a picture for us, a spiritual truth for us, as God grows in us a heart of faith. Now we know the health of anything, even a plant or a heart devoted to God, reflects on what's going on (or not going on) underground or in our hearts. Let us examine ourselves. If God is going to be first in our hearts and the most important Person, we must develop a root system buried deep in Him. Just like a plant, with roots hidden underground: well now, I'm talking about us out of the public eye and alone with God; our roots drawing from Him all that we need to live this life abundantly. God promised His children abundant life. We know Satan comes as a thief in the night, to steal, kill, maim and destroy: and Jesus came to save us so we may have life to the fullest. (John 10:10). We must seek to live our lives near to God (like a plant's roots hidden in Him). Well with that in mind we must seek a deeper life in Christ Jesus.
So now let us look at some facts about roots. Roots are unseen and our spiritual roots are invisible to others. Think of an iceberg: I read that an iceberg shows the importance of what is hidden, it shows only 1/7 of itself visible above the surface. Any wise fisherman knows not to get to close to it because of what's underneath; the other 6/7 is hidden and spread beneath the water. So, what we see is only a fraction of the huge iceberg. We want our public life to reflect what goes on in private between God and ourselves; where we are being rooted and grounded in Him, being nourished and watered by His Word. Wait a minute don't get it twisted, it's easy to think what counts in a Christian's life is our time spent in public with people because we're always with people..... people at work, people at Church, people at Bible study, and people especially at home, people on the prayer line and wherever else we spend our time with people. But if we are honest, the truth is that the biggest part of our day should be spent hidden in quiet meditation and in prayer and Bible study, scheduling our time with God (if you keep the same time every day with God, it becomes a needed routine.) When we make this the greater part of our life, it will show on the outside, that our lives are rooted in Him and in His Word.
