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Every Friday I join a community of bloggers for Five Minute Friday. One word prompt, five minutes. Unedited. The prompt this week is … Root.

It’s been quite a dry and hot summer, very little rain. As the summer wore on, the water ban increased causing some of my annual plants to dry out and die.

Dry soil is not exactly fertile ground, or ideal conditions, for the growth of vegetation. Many plants would not survive, never mind, thrive.

Yet we are told of one servant who both grew, and did thrive, in the unlikeliest of places:

“My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground.” (Isaiah 53:2, NLT)

The verse is referring to Jesus, who came into a dry and spiritually empty world. He grew and thrived, and so can we, even when conditions around us may not be perfect.

The verse tells me two conditions we need for spiritual growth …

We must dwell where we will thrive and there is no better place than close to the Lord. “One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord And to meditate in His temple” (Psalm 27:4, NASB). Where are we dwelling?

Our lives are kept pure as we spend time in God’s Word. God’s Word waters our dry and thirsty souls, and we need watering daily. “Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word” (Ephesians 5:25b-26, NASB). Are we being sufficiently watered?

Our roots matter and determine our spiritual health. The word prompt brought to mind a quote I wrote down in the back of my Bible:

“Its roots are the means whereby a plant is nourished, the channel through which its life is derived. No plant can live without a root-system. Equipped with one it may survive in the most unpromising conditions.”

(from A Table In The Wilderness by Watchman Nee, March 1st)

 

Photo by Lubo Minar on Unsplash
Today I may be joining … Five Minute Friday and Grace & Truth .