Rooted in Love

Hi, and welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Today's reading, titled Rooted in Love, was written by Amy Peterson. That's all it takes, Meghan said, as she clipped a stem from her geranium plant, dipped the cut end into honey, and stuck it into a pot filled with compost. Meghan was teaching me how to propagate geraniums, how to turn one healthy plant into many plants so I would have flowers to share with others.

The honey, she said, was to help the young plant establish roots. Watching her work, I wondered, what kinds of things help us establish spiritual roots? What helps us mature into strong, flourishing people of faith?

What keeps us from withering up or failing to grow? Paul, writing to the Ephesians, says that we are rooted and established in love. This love comes from God, who strengthens us by giving us the Holy Spirit. Christ dwells in our hearts, and as we begin to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, we can have a rich experience of God's presence as we're completely filled and flooded with God himself.

Growing spiritually requires rooting into the love of God, meditating on the truth that we are beloved by the God who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. What an incredible basis for our faith! Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Ephesians chapter 3, verses 14 through 21. For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever.

Amen. Let's pray. God, thank you for your love for us. Help us to meditate on the truth of that love. When we place our trust in you, we are like a plant rooted firmly in the ground. As we grow in your love, our roots grow deeper and stronger. May your love grow in our hearts, bringing beauty to our lives and to a world in need. Thank you, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.