It was a crisp early morning as I headed outside to water my new flower bed. In the midst of watering the flowers, my neighbor strolled by walking her dog.
“It’s looks so good!” She said. “Thank you” I replied. Laughing, I went on to say, “I always forget I have to water them every day.”
She responded by saying, “Actually, once they are established, the professionals say you only need to water them twice a week. If you do that, their roots become thirsty, and this is what causes their roots to go deep.”
Aha. Made perfect sense to me.
Thirsty roots will go deep in search of water.
David said, “O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.” Psalm 63:1
In the Webster’s 1828 dictionary, the word thirsty is defined as; feeling a painful sensation for want of drink and having a vehement desire of any thing.
Does that describe how we feel toward God? Or toward His Word?
Do we long to be in the presence of God so much that it is painful at times? Do we have a strong desire to read the Word of God every single day?
This type of thirst is what will cause our roots to grow down deep into God. Our roots going down deep is what causes our faith to grow.
Colossians 2:7 in the New Living Translation says, “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.”
Like a tree, our roots only grow deep in search of something. In search of water. In search of quenching a thirst. That thirst drives us deeper and deeper in search of living water.
Jeremiah 2 & 17 calls God the Living Water. John 7:38 says; “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”
It is the washing of the water of the word that makes us clean. (Ephesians 5:26)
Just as in the natural, spiritually speaking we cannot live without water – the water of the Word of God. The Living Water which is God, Himself. It is our life source.
To continually have this life source, we must allow our roots to grow deep into Him just as Colossians says.
For this to happen, we must stay thirsty for God and His Word. We must crave His Word like a thirsty man craves a cold drink of water on a hot summer day. Nothing less will do.
Are your thirsty today?
Are your roots growing deep into Him? Are those deep roots producing strong faith?
If not, ask God to cause you to thirst for His Word. Put His Word and His presence first place in your life…drink of it daily until you begin to thirst and long for it.
Deep roots only come by drinking of this Living Water. Strong faith requires deep roots.
Today…may your roots grower deeper and deeper into Him.
