The following is a summer challenge I issued to our church family by email this week.
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been enjoying an early morning, fast paced walk with Carolyn on a pleasant trail in the woods near the house. It’s really all I can do to keep up — she’s been walking about an hour a day, almost every day, for a couple of years now. On our walk this morning I saw a tall pine tree lying beside the trail. The tree looked like it had been blown over recently.
What I found interesting about it was the fact that though the tree had been standing not long ago, probably about 20 feet tall or so, a young pine, and appeared to be healthy, I saw no tap root. From what I understand about pines they grow a deep tap root that gives them strength and stability. Evidently the tap root of this tree had been compromised or was simply insufficient to withstand the severity of the storm that hit it.
How’s your spiritual tap root? Two characteristics seen in 1 John of believers who are strong in their walk with Christ are that they are people in whom God’s Word abides (1 John 2:14) and they are people who abide in Christ (1 John 2:27) — that is they yield to the work the Holy Spirit is working in them.
Let me encourage and challenge you to give attention to strengthening and growing your spiritual “tap root” by reading God’s Word this summer. Summer will go by quickly and I know there are many things we’d like to do during these wonderful but few warm days in Northern Michigan. Take time to enjoy them, but don’t neglect God’s Word. Better yet, get outside, pull out your favorite lawn chair or Adirondack and enjoy God’s Word while you enjoy His creation. And then be certain that you approach God’s Word with reverent humility, ready to obey as God’s Spirit works in you. Grow your spiritual tap root deep this summer.