168. Deepen your roots

 I’ve been struggling to write this past week. Struggling to be myself. Struggling to catch my breath. I’ve felt out of my comfort zone quite a bit. I’ve been trying to put my head on straight and trying to take the emotion out of life. To be sensible, make good decisions and stay on the right path. The one the Lord has for me. 

Yet every time I take a giant step forward the enemy comes clawing at me trying to drag me back. Trying to cause insecurity to rise up, filing my head with thoughts of doubt. Plaguing my plans with sickness, unexpected costs, and throwing a wrench right into the wheel I had spinning so perfectly, or so I thought. So here I am needing to practice what I preach. Needing to spend more time in the word and less time in the world pondering the what if’s of every decision I’ve ever made.

Growth is painful, change is scary, even when you know it’s for the best. You can see the good in the future but it means loosing the comfort of control and the security of the routine you’ve had for years. The question comes again “Do you trust me?”. The answer being of course I do, Lord. “Then act like it”. Bam. To the Lord it’s as simple as that. Trust Him, fully. With every fiber of your being. Trust Him, and act like it. Walk in it. Even if you don’t understand or are uncomfortable in the process.

The other day during prayer I had a vision of a flower. It’s was sitting on a ledge in the sun. It was planted in this beautiful clay pot that had been painted a gorgeous shade of blue, sparkled with gold and pearl swirls. It looked perfect there. Content, peaceful and vibrant. The sun was setting and I saw the Lord wrap His loving hands firmly around the pot. He raised it above His head and tossed it to the ground with strength and determination. 

Upon hitting the ground, the beautiful clay pot shattered to pieces. The world the flower knew, the secure foundation it had, was gone. The sun set, the rain came, and as I saw the sun rise again I noticed something amazing. The flower was still standing. Not only was it standing, it was taller, it had grown. It was blooming more than it had before. The roots had spread out through the ground and had penetrated deeper than they ever could have before. 

It was free to grow, it was more secure than before. It’s root system was stronger, was more spread out, and it was soaking up nutrients it had never been exposed to before. There was new life, there was new growth, there was new hope. All because it’s seemingly perfect little world was shattered to pieces by the Lord. 

We can paint our pretty pictures for everyone else to see. We can put on the show and put ourselves on display, but what we can’t do on our own is grow in that atmosphere of display. 

Growth comes from letting the Lord break your routine. By letting the word break open your heart. Growth comes from letting His truth completely shatter the way you look at the world, at your life, and at yourself. But when you do, oh the freedom you’ll have. Oh the new life you’ll be fed, oh, the new revelation you’ll experience in Jesus!

Religion, fear of man, wanting to fit in, anxiety, depression, fear of losing control, anger, unforgiveness, all of those things and more, leave us bound in demonic bondange, stuck in our individual tiny clay pots of life. Expecting growth and reaching as far up to the sun as we can, but not realizing that we are stuck right where we are, stuck in our ways, in the worlds ways and stuck in the mindset of wanting to be seen as perfect to everyone else. Our perfect little worlds keep us from the very growth we desire within. We need to stop trying to fake it and be real to be healed. 

Let the Lord completely shatter your world. Let the Holy Spirit free you from the bondage that is your every day life. Let yourself grow. Let yourself experience the freedom that comes from the full surrender to the Lord. 

He is waiting for you to say break me, Lord. Mold me, show me what I’ve been missing. 

Find your freedom in full surrender to the Lord. 

I can assure you, that I’d rather be a broken shattered life, fully restored to fullness in Christ through His Holy Spirit than be a perfect little flower sitting on a shelf. 

Find your freedom, find your growth, find yourself in Christ. 

It’s time. 

Ephesians 3:17-19

17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,

18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;

19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

2 Peter 3:18 - But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

Matthew 5:6 - Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

Philippians 1:6 - Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

Ephesians 4:11-16

11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Psalm 7:8-9

8 The Lord judges the peoples; judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.

9 Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end, and may you establish the righteous— you who test the minds and hearts, O righteous God!

Ecclesiastes 3:3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

John 5:24

24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

Ezekiel 11:19 - And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:

Jeremiah 29:11 - For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

Isaiah 43:19 - Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 6:4 - Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Matthew 13:6 - And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.