Two annoying weeds gardeners contend with year after year are honeysuckle vines and dandelions. Cut them down or mow over them, and they are back the next week. At our previous house, my neighbor, a professional landscaper, taught me a valuable lesson about certain types of weeds. Two, bamboo or swamp briars grew in my yard. It seemed impossible to get rid of them. I’d cut them off and try pulling them up but in a month they were as big as ever. He noticed my useless efforts one day and yelled, “You got to get the root-tuber and it’s down deep. I’ll be right over.” In a few minutes he drove up with his backhoe. With a couple of scoops he dug out a big bulb a foot in the ground. I never had another problem. Some weeds like swamp briars, honeysuckle, and dandelions have deep roots. It does no good to cut them off, the roots must be dug out.
I can’t begin counting the number of Christians I’ve watched week after week at the altar praying for forgiveness of the same sin. Their weekly repentance only cut off the fruit of their transgression but never dealt with the root. John wrote, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 Jn 1:9). All sin has to forgive and some need to cleansed or rooted out. Writers of scripture used the analogy of roots throughout the Bible. Remember the Bible was first written to an agrarian society many of whom were illiterate, they didn’t think in the abstract terms, but understood spiritual lessons corelated with agricultural life. Scriptures speaks of bitterness having a root. See to it . . . no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble (Heb 12:15). Love of money has a root. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil (1Ti 6:10). Jesus warned of those who lack secure roots. The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away (Mat 13:20, 21).
The Bible also illustrates positive lessons through roots. First, note the characteristics and purpose of roots to a plant. Roots are below the ground and unseen. Spiritual growth begins with the unseen working of the Holy Spirit in someone’s heart. We can minister to an individual and see nothing happen, but the entire time God is working in the unseen. Roots provide water and nutrition to the plant. Roots anchor a plant giving it stability. Good roots provides us with hope even when life tears us down and destroys all our fruit. For a tree there is always hope. Chop it down and it still has a chance-its roots can put out fresh sprouts (Job 14:7 MSG).
Commentators compare Psalms chapter one to the preface of a book giving an overall view of the contents of the Book of Psalms. It begins by challenging us to become rooted in the Word of God. Believers who do will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers (Ps 1:3). The Psalmist gives both a negative and a positive requirement for this blessing. We must not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers (v1). In other words avoid sinful influences. The positive and most important way to be roots and survive the storms of life is to become saturated with the Word of God. His delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night (v2). The word for meditate is more than just thinking about a verse; it is an action word. The firmly rooted Christian not only thinks about the Word but put it into action.
The Psalm contrast those firmly planted with those who aren’t. The wicked are not so, But they are like chaff which the wind drives away (v4). They are like tumbleweeds in the desert that break off at their root and blow wherever the wind takes it. Paul prayers that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love (Eph 3:17). He also wrote be firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith (Col 2:7). The more we build up in Him, the more our roots will grow, spread out, and go deep giving us more stability.
Sustaining Word for the Week: Stop just cutting them off. Dig out the swamp briars. If life has destroyed everything you were, have hope, the roots you’ve grown in Christ will sprout and produce tender new shoots.