Below the Surface

I was sitting on our porch this morning watching and thinking.  The hot winds were blowing the young trees in the courtyard around pretty well.  Some were bending slightly but remaining steady.  We saw numerous trees uprooted in Indiana over the 4th of July from that freak storm that went through.  It was obvious that their roots weren't deep enough to help them stand.
This morning I was thinking through Jeremiah 17:

⁵ This is what the Lord says:

“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
    who draws strength from mere flesh
    and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
⁶ That person will be like a bush in the wastelands;
    they will not see prosperity when it comes.
They will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
    in a salt land where no one lives.

⁷ “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
    whose confidence is in him.
⁸ They will be like a tree planted by the water
    that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
    its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
    and never fails to bear fruit.” 

The time to determine where the roots of our trust lie is not in the midst of the storms, but before.  When our roots are deep and deepening in the Lord, we will stand.  But if we consistently trust in ourselves and other people, we will be uprooted when the storms come and then turn around and blame God for the storm.  

The purpose we are doing the House of Prayer and the Grow Discipleship classes as well as our Sunday offerings is to help people go deeper.  Many choose to want a more passive role and just "enjoy" a service.  But roots don't go deep with passivity.   It is in the storms of life and the development times in between that causes our roots to grow.  


Make sure you are growing.  There are storms coming.  Will you stand?