Have you checked your Roots lately? Rooted Series: Part 1 | E44 S3
Hi guys! I’m back! I apologize for the impromtu mid season break. July was a bit of a crazy month with travel and unexpectedly losing my grandmother and some other big life things that I needed to take time to prepare for, but I’m back and I’m so excited for this new series. I’ve had it on my heart for a while to work on a curriculum that aligns with the next 3 series and while I’m still working on the curriculum that goes with these series, I wanted to go ahead and do some episodes around them because they are important to our faith journey as leaders and believers.
The new series we are diving into is called Rooted: Building a Strong Foundation in God. This series will help us to make sure we have healthy roots as well as strong roots in our relationship with God so that we can go deeper in our faith and strengthen our faith.
Before we dive in, I did want to remind you that my course for self publishing is live and available for purchase. If you or someone you know has a dream to publish and they want to go the self publishing route, this is a great resource to walk you through the process step by step to help you publish. If you want to learn more go to selfpublishcourse.com
Okay so let’s hop into this first episode of the series. Why do we need to be rooted in our faith? How are our roots? Are they healthy or shallow or deep or thin? These are all things I want to dive into in this first episode.
As most people know, I’m a big plant lady. I have around 15 or more plants and I love learning about how to take care of them. One of the biggest things I’ve learned in my plant journey is that most of the time if the plant is having an issue it’s 8/10 because of the roots. Most plants die because of root rot. Either the plant was put in too big of a pot and it’s roots weren’t vast enough to handle the environment so the soil drowned the roots out, or the roots are in too small of a pot and the roots become root bound because they have no where to go. Another scenario is where the roots get too much water too often so they never have a chance to dry out and have room to go through the growth process so they end up rotting because they are too saturated. So whenever I start to notice an issue with my plants whether the leaves are turning yellow or brown or the plant is drooping or something doesn’t seem right, this is why I check the root system first.
Some plants can go a long time in survival mode before you realize there’s an issue with the roots. I had that happen this weekend with my snake plant. It hadn’t produced new leaves in a really long time and the soil at the bottom of the pot would never dry out. I quickly decided to repot it and I’m so glad I did because it almost had no healthy roots whatsoever. The root system was completely shot because I had it in too large of a pot and the roots all dried out and withered away because they were suffocating.
Okay so you probably didn’t realize you were going to get a plant lesson from me today, but I promise there’s a lot to unpack here that will help you as well. You see we have root systems as well and while they aren’t anything you can see, we are all rooted in something.
Scripture talks a lot about roots and plants and trees. God constantly uses nature as a way to provide symbolism and lessons to us. Take Jeremiah 17:7-8 for example, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” or even an example of some bad roots that can take place in our lives as talked about in Hebrews 12:15, See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;”
There are a lot of different types of roots we can grow. Some we didn’t intend to grow and others that we did intend to grow. Some roots need pruning and uprooting and other roots need more nurturing.
The first thing that we need to do in order to have deeper roots with God, is to first exam the roots we do have. Do we have any roots of bitterness or anger or rage or fear or anxiety? Are there any roots in our past that we are holding tightly too? Any shame or anything that feels like it’s holding us back from being our healthiest self? What lies are you believing that you need to uproot and replace with truth?
If you happen to be in a place when listening to this jot down some notes and see what root rot you might have that needs to be addressed. This won’t be an overnight fix but awareness is key to knowing what your go forward game plan looks like for how you will continue to prune away and uproot anything holding you back.
Next I want you to take inventory of what your good roots are, how is your relationship with God? What areas of doubts do you have? What areas with God do you feel most confident and what areas do you struggle to trust him? This will help you know what areas you can tend to in order to grow stronger roots.
Keeping a notebook of your different roots will help you with your journey to grow deeper, stronger, healthier roots.
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