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Rooted and Established

Words of Faith Final

Rooted and Established

Words of Faith 2-17-2021

Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2021

Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com

Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL

www.faithfellowshipweb.com

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Ephesians 3

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, [18] may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, [19] and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

 

     The next prayer of Paul for the believers in Ephesus was that they might have power to grasp the wonder of God's love, something that one can only approach as we are rooted and established in love.

     Okay. So, do we experience God's love, and then we are rooted and established in it or are we rooted and established so that then we can grasp how great it is?  The answer is YES! As we are rooted and established, we grow more and more in the experiences of God's love for us.  As we encounter the love of God for us, we are more and more rooted and established in Him.

     Now we don't want to miss this.  Paul used two very different words here.  To be "rooted" is an agricultural or gardening term.  We are rooted like a plant.  The word speaks of feeding and nourishment that deepens year by year.  To be "established" is a construction term and refers to the setting or laying of a foundation.  Any building needs a firm foundation in order to last.  A foundation is something that is settled by pounding or else it will cause cracks and destruction.

     Roots continue to grow and nourish. Christ's love nourishes us and settles us. There are relationships and habits that nourish you.  Worship, the Word, prayer, fellowship, and service all nourish you. We need them all. This is a place of spiritual formation and growth. 

     Psalm 1 puts it so well: Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law, he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.  Whatever he does prospers.

      When a person is joined with Christ, many things are settled or should be. Many of these are foundational. Though we may struggle with temptation, we don't need to decide each day if we should act in the flesh; that is settled.  We don't need to decide if we will experiment with drugs or other illicit behaviors.  Those matters are settled.  We are grounded in those commitments.

     The Psalmist goes on to describe the alternative-- Not so the wicked!  They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.  I don't know about you, but I really don't want to be chaff, rotting away in the field waiting to be burned.

       Paul's prayer for believers was that they might be rooted and established, are you?  Are you rooted or rotted?  Are you established or unfastened? Are you settled or unsettled?

 

     Father God, I want to be rooted and established.  I want to be nourished and settled.  I want to be growing and stable.  I want to be more and more exactly who You want me to be.  Form me and shape me.  Help me to settle once and for all the matters that have been unsettled in my life.  Help me to find the rooting that I need so that I will not rot.  In Jesus' Name.

 

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© Jeffrey D. Hoy 2010, 2021

Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy - Faith Fellowship Church (EFCA)       

2820 Business Center Blvd.

Melbourne, Florida 32940 (321)-259-7200

Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com

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The Words of Faith devotion is published five days a week by E-mail, excluding Federal holidays. Please feel free to forward this devotion to a friend who might be blessed by this devotion. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (R) of The Holy Bible. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Words of Faith (c) 1997, 2010 Jeffrey D. Hoy. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to forward this copyrighted material or use portions of it with appropriate notation of the source for non-profit purposes.