Roots

I took these photos in the spring with full intentions of writing a beautiful post about ROOTS, faith, and growing.

Buuttt.... you see all those tiny growing plants in the pictures?
Some had good roots in place, some were just cuttings hoping to shoot out some roots... all of them are now dead.

ALL of them. Even the ones my sweet kids gave me for mother's day. Every. Last. One of them. Dead.

Like us, right? Dead in our sins and trespasses... completely hopeless in our pursuit of greatness and perfection... a mess on the inside, trying to keep it together on the outside, even though we know deep down that we are what we are... 
BUT GOD...

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ..... For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,"
Ephesians 2:5-6,8

Y'all, we planted, we watered, we watched our little plants grow, then we watched them die, and I'm so glad life got in the way and I never got around to writing that original post! One dramatic event or emotion after another over the course of the last several months has left me SO grateful that, no matter how rooted I am in the Giver of faith, I am not in the position, nor is it my role, to grow myself. Because, if I'm honest, my faith would be as dead as my plants are if it was my role to do the growing.

And that's where I want to encourage you today. Because I know you're weary, too. I know you've worked hard, and I know some days you're closer to the end of your rope than you would ever openly confess. I know that days, weeks, maybe months pass and you don't see the inside of your Bible or utter a word to your Father. I know some days it's hard to climb out of bed, be a wife, or the mama your children need. And I know some days you feel resistant to growth of any kind, because how can we grow when we're stuck in a dark hole of loneliness, anxiety, depression, overwhelm...?

"I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth."
1 Corinthians 3:5-7

Friends, God is the Giver of growth. Not you or I... Our faith is a gift, and so is our growth, our sanctification. If you're climbing a mountain today, and you can't see the top or what lies on the other side, please grasp onto this promise with all that is in you, "that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." (Philippians 1:6) Be encouraged, you cannot stop Him from growing you, pursuing you, and molding you into His image.

And today, I'm praying this scripture for both of us as we look toward the Light that is shining in our darkness and growing us despite our resistant hearts:
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14-19)