ROOTED AND GROUNDED IN LOVE
EPHESIANS 3:17 “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love.”
It is one thing to believe intellectually that God loves His own people, to read of how He has shown love to His people and agree that His works give evidence of it. But quite another thing to have the settled assurance that He loves me, when the storms of life are raging around me, and afflictions or persecutions draw near. We can see nothing with the natural understanding to place our hopes upon, nor do we feel confident that He is near. We say, as the psalmist, “Why standest thou afar off, O Lord, why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble,” (Psalm 10:1) when he cried out in distress.
At such times the Lord seems to stand off in the distance and coldly look upon our difficulty. Even worse, He seems not to be concerned about the situation we are experiencing. The presence of the Lord, realized and felt, is the strength and comfort of the believer. The discouraging prospect of being without His “ever present help in time of need” is unbearable.
By the end of the Psalm, the afflicted one is convinced that he has been heard by the Lord and the answer is forthcoming. The truth of the Father loving whom He chastens is where we must place our trust; thus, we are not to despise it, that is to set lightly by it. We are not to esteem it lightly as something of no real value when we are under it. His love is to be rooted and grounded in our hearts. Rooted like a tree in rich and fertile soil and grounded like a house built upon the rock of a solid foundation.
Observe that in both illustrations God uses, are hidden provisions. The root of a tree is hidden deeply into the earth and the foundation of a house is laid so deeply that human eyes cannot see it. A whole-hearted trust in the love of God and the truth of God is our strength amid chastening, then. Love and truth go hand in hand. There never is any separation between them. The unseen, hidden from view, source of our faith is the solid foundation of the Word of God, which will endure the storms of life.
In His Marvelous Grace,
Pastor Ed Bowen
