Daily Devotional

My daughter and I are starting to get our garden ready to plant for the spring.  Having grown up on a farm and helping my dad with the field work, I know how important it is to prepare the soil for planting.  The ground needs to be broken up to allow the young plants to send down roots deep into the soil.  The soil needs to have nutrients that the roots will draw up into the plant to make it grow healthy and strong, providing what the plant needs to grow an abundant crop.    

The farming world has a lot of similarities to our relationship with Christ.  In fact, Jesus often used farming analogies to illustrate spiritual truth.  With that in mind, once we came to know Christ as Savior and Lord, we were designed to grow in our relationship with Him.  This spiritual growth is possible because…

We are rooted in Christ.

Paul had instructed the believers at the Colossian Church to live out the teaching they had received about Christ.  He told them they were rooted in Christ.  Rooted is an agricultural term.  The word expresses an abiding result, “having been rooted with the present result that you are firmly anchored.”  The idea expressed is that you have been once for all rooted with a continuing result that you are firmly anchored.  Our spiritual roots should go down deep into the spiritual truth of God’s Word.  These roots will provide stability and nourish us spiritually.

As Christians we are not to be like tumble weeds…rolling along with every wind of change.  In Montana, the wind would blow strong, and tumbleweeds would roll for miles until being caught up in the fences along the road.  We are to have roots that are gripping the firm foundation of the doctrinal truth of God’s Word and not blown around by every wind of doctrine.  Paul writes to the Ephesians and says…

“That we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting…” Ephesians 4:14

As we read Paul’s words, we can see that we are not transplants, moved repeatedly from one soil to another.  Once we are rooted in Christ, there is no need to change the soil.  Roots draw up nourishment from the soil in which they are planted giving strength and stability.  Today we can be thankful that we have the truth as a solid footing for our lives.

We are to being built up in Christ.

Paul continues describing the depth of our relationship with Christ by using the phrase, “We are being built up in Christ.” “Built up” is speaking of continuous action, “being constantly built up.”

This is an architectural term.  God is in the process of building us up.  Our life is a structure that has been designed to bring glory to the Lord.  The whole building process is “in Him.”  It speaks of the realm in which the building takes place.  We are being built up in the personality, character, life, and power of the Lord.  Today God is in the process of building our lives.  We should be thankful for what He is doing.

We are established in Christ.

As we grow in our relationship with the Lord, the Word of God is what builds and establishes our lives as Christians.  The word “established” means “to make firm.”  It emphasizes continuous action and refers to a process that is going on, “constantly being established.”  God is daily building us up in Him and we are to grow deeper in our relationship.  This building process takes place by the instrument of our faith.  Our growing faith in the Lord and His Word causes us to grow in Him.  The deeper our faith and confidence in the Lord, the more we will grow in our relationship with Him.
 
Today we need to faithfully learn the truth of God’s Word.  We cannot be established in the Word without studying it.  Are you regularly spending time in God’s Word?  Is your relationship with Christ growing deeper?  Let your spiritual roots go down deep into Christ and His Word!

Prayer:  Lord, thank you for making it possible for me to have a growing relationship with You.  Help me to desire to know You.  May my faith and confidence in You grow each day.  Amen  

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.