Rooted
In Christ
The
righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in
Lebanon. Ps. 92:12.
The
Christian is likened to the cedar of Lebanon. I have read that this tree does
more than send down a few short roots into the yielding loam. It sends strong
roots deep down into the earth, and strikes down farther and still farther
in search of a still stronger hold. And in the fierce blast of the tempest,
it stands firm, held by its network of cables beneath.
So the Christian strikes root deep into Christ. He has faith in his Redeemer.
He knows in whom he believes. He is fully persuaded that Jesus is the Son
of God and the Saviour of sinners. . . . The roots of faith strike deep down.
Genuine Christians, like the cedar of Lebanon, do not grow in the soft surface
soil, but are rooted in God, riveted in the clefts of the mountain rocks.
If the Christian thrives and progresses at all, he must do so amid strangers
to God, amid scoffing, subject to ridicule. He must stand upright like the
palm tree in the desert. The sky may be as brass, the desert sand may beat
about the palm tree’s roots, and pile itself in heaps about its trunk.
Yet the tree lives as an evergreen, fresh and vigorous amid the burning desert
sands. Remove the sand till you reach the rootlets of the palm tree, and you
discover the secret of its life; it strikes down deep beneath the surface,
to the secret waters hidden in the earth.
As the palm tree, drawing nourishment from fountains of living water, is green
and flourishing in the midst of the desert, so the Christian may draw rich
supplies of grace from the fountain of God’s love, and may guide weary
souls, that are full of unrest and ready to perish in the desert of sin, to
those waters of which they may drink, and live. The Christian is ever pointing
his fellow men to Jesus, who invites, “If any man thirst, let him come
unto me, and drink.” John 7:37. This fountain never fails us; we may
draw, and draw again.
From
Devotional: Our Father Cares, p. 112.
