© Carlos Caetano - Fotolia.com
“So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:17-19)
When I first started blogging over two years ago, I chose this scripture verse as the tagline for my blog. I didn’t choose it because I had an understanding of this kind of love, but rather I desired to really know and understand the width, length, height and depth of His love. I want to be rooted and established in love — in the kind of love that is beyond my comprehension.
I’ve always struggled to fully accept God’s love for me. Past hurts and wounds have woven pain so deep that it’s taken me years to undo the lies. The lies that tell me I am not good enough, not pretty enough, not worth, anything, etc. and so on. I’ve come a long way, but I still have a ways to go. It is so important to me to remain connected to the Vine (Jesus). I must allow His love to change the way I think about what He feels towards me. When I abide in Him, His love for me overwhelms my heart and mind and I receive that extra measure of grace to see my weaknesses as strengths in the light of His great love!
The concept of abiding in Christ is so much about allowing our roots to go down deep. We cannot often see the roots of trees. But they stretch very far. And deep underground there are streams of water that bring never-ending nourishment to them, which bring life and stability to not only the tree, but to it’s branches. How do you think a tree can live for hundreds of years? It is because their root systems are constantly tapping into the source of living water — constant and abiding nourishment.
I want to be like a tree, planted by streams of living water. I want to be established in His love, allowing my roots to go down deep into the richness of His love, bringing health and nourishment to my soul.
They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit. (Jeremiah 17:8)
When we abide in Christ and allow His love to nourish our souls, we will live abundant and thriving lives and will bear much fruit. I want that. I want to live in the overflow of God’s abundance. I want to bear good fruit and bring others into the nourishing love of God. But in order to share this knowledge with others, my roots must first go down deep.
God wants to abide in us. He wants our hearts to be a place where He can dwell (live, remain, to constantly abide). Do you believe that the God of the universe desires to be with You? Do you know that He leans over the balcony of heaven, just to hear your voice? Do you know that He calls you lovely? Do you know the way that you move His heart?
Are your roots going deeper into His love? Are you learning to abide? My friend Kimberly at A Planting of the Lord is wrapping up her series on Rooting Deeper tomorrow. I hope you will find the time to read some of her posts on. They have truly been a blessing to me as we have both been on similar journeys over the last 30 days.
*This is Days 30 of a 31 day series on “Abiding”. You can find all of my posts in this series here. And be sure to stop by some of the other 31Dayers. Over 700 bloggers have linked up so far! There is something for everyone!
