Vicki shares her thought from the week; being rooted in Christ.

Today we have been out in the garden having a bit of a reorganise and a bit of a weed and I don’t profess to be any great gardener; I decide what looks nice and I hope it survives!

But this rose behind me is my absolute favourite part of our garden. When we first moved into this house the garden, let’s just say, needed a bit of attention and it was all hands on deck. One of our particular hands confused the rose with a weed and took everything they could to hack it, to dig at it, to chop it and to try and get this rose out of the garden! When I discovered what was going on, I did my best to pack it down again and gave it a good water, gave it words of encouragement and hoped that perhaps it might flower. And it did! Every year since we have the most amazing peachy roses that come out and it made me think how deep those roots must have gotten, how well established those roots must have been!

Colossians 2 tells us that we are to be rooted in Christ and Paul is writing to the Colossians because he has heard that there are other ideologies coming in, an element of legalism creeping in and he’s reminding them that they need to be rooted in the right thing. We will have trouble and tough times, times when we feel like our roots are being hacked at and battered. John 16 tells us you will have trouble.

But we can withstand those if we are rooted in the right thing. If we are rooted in Christ, roots that have grown deep, roots that have grown established, roots that when the sun is shining and there are no attacks coming, time has been taken to grow those roots.

So maybe right now your spiritual garden is blooming, and maybe the sun is shining. I would urge you to take this time to really bed those roots in, to spend your time praying, to get to know the word of God, and to make sure that those roots are being strengthened when you are perhaps not under that pressure. Be prepared for the times when you will need those roots to be strong.

Maybe right now you feel like the enemy is having a bit of a butcher a moment. Perhaps you feel like he’s taking every weapon that he’s got and really trying to dig you up. And I want to encourage you to hold on to trust in those roots that you have already grown. To trust in the thing that you are rooted to, the person that you are rooted to, that He is strong enough and has already overcome the one who is attacking you. Look forward to that time when the hacking is over and your spiritual garden is back to being bright and breezy and perhaps a little easier. Look forward to the time when you will have those most beautiful roses that will bear testimony to the God who sustained you through it.

Every week one of our members shares a short thought aiming to inspire you for the week. You can watch previous Thought For The Week videos by clicking here.