ROOTED AND GROUNDED- A LESSON FROM MY PETUNIAS

I love nature- not only for the beauty and intrigue it brings but for the lessons we can learn from it. While Jesus walked among us, He taught us many spiritual lessons using nature and He is doing the same today- if we take the time to listen.

 

I recently bought some flowers to put into containers around our house. I had bought some petunias and re-potted them into hanging baskets. A couple days later while I was taking it off the hook to reposition it, the pot slipped from my hands and fell several feet to the sidewalk. I just stood there for a little bit looking at it- all the new potting soil I had placed under, around and above it was spread all over the sidewalk and the yard. And there was the original piece of sod with the four beautiful petunias just lying there. I had just been admiring how nice they were looking since being in their new pot, just before I left them fall to their possible death. I went off the porch, scooped up the petunias and the new soil, put them back into the pot and added new soil and with a prayer that they would survive in spite of my mishandling them, placed them in a cool spot to recover.

 

I didn't think much about the incident until that night, awaking in the early morning hours and before me I saw those petunias just laying there on the sidewalk, still all root bound and all the new soil laying around it. I kept asking God what this meant. I saw this first in a negative way. The verse about strongholds came to my mind- how we allow things in our lives to get so rooted into our soil, that even when God tries to bring new life (the new potting soil), we are not able to absorb it because we are so bogged down with the things of this world, or worse yet sins that we have not dealt with and are now a stronghold in our lives. A stronghold is something that we have allowed to grow in our spirits and then the enemy- Satan- has come in and made it into a strong fortress where he can gain access to our lives. It causes us to not be successful in growing in the Lord. 2 Corinthians 10:4 says the "the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled."  Just like those petunias that had become so root bound, that they could not absorb the new soil or the water- sometimes we get so root bound that we can not absorb God's word or His Spirit. It causes a stunt to our growth. If this is allowed to remain, we will not only stop growing but we will eventually come to a point of death in our spiritual lives. We must cast down the stronghold spiritually with the weapons of our warfare-- prayer and obedience and the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

The rest of that day I spent seeking the Lord to see what were the roots in my life that were so bound up that it was stunting my growth. I repented of those things that the Lord was showing me and dedicating myself again to His rule in my life. Sometimes I want to run things my way- and that is rebellion. But we must submit our lives to His rule and reign. Doing anything else causes us to be unhappy and discontented.

 

Today, the Lord showed me the positive side of the illustration of the root bound petunias. Ephesians 3:17 says "that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height--"  These verses come from a prayer that Paul prayed for the church in Ephesus and it is still relevant today. When we are rooted and grounded in HIS love--- like those petunias rooted and grounded in that original soil where they were planted--- they are not able to absorb those things around them. In other words, when we are so in love with the Lord-- the things of this world will not affect us. When the enemy comes in for an attack- it will not affect us. We may be thrown off balance for a little bit- like those petunias laying on the sidewalk- but we will be able to get back up again and continue the good fight of faith with the loving help of our heavenly Father. The outside world can not affect us as long as we are rooted and ground in His love.

 

Dear Father, search me and know my heart and see if there is anything there that is not pleasing to You and that would cause me to stumble and fall or be a reproach to Your name. And let me be so rooted and grounded in Your love that the things of the world would not affect me. In Christ's name, Amen.