Deep Faith

Deep Faith

Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. Colossians 2:7

THE FIRST PSALM PICTURES BELIEVERS as trees planted by streams of water. Their roots grow deep into the soil, and they bear fruit with the seasons. Paul recalls this image in his letter to the Colossians and encourages them to let their roots grow deep into Christ, the one who promised rivers of living water flowing from within. When we do, our faith grows strong. And when our faith grows strong, spiritual truths and realities become visible. We overflow with thankfulness.

There’s a lot going on in that simple image—a process of investing our hearts and minds in the truth of who Jesus is and what he said; growth in our abiding, life-drawing relationship with him; and a lifestyle of fruitfulness in certain seasons. Our lives of faith are like seeds planted in the ground, and in the right conditions they grow into something rich, nourishing, powerful, and strong. But it takes time. Trees and roots don’t grow overnight. Fountains of thankfulness aren’t just turned on and off like a faucet. Seeds of faith—both our general faith in Jesus and our specific faith in the promises, callings, and purposes he has given us—have to mature. We have not embarked on a magical, instantaneous process.

Learning to live with the expectation of God’s goodness in response to our faith on the one hand and the long view toward full maturity in whatever he has planted on the other takes some balancing. But both sides of that faith equation are important. It’s a lifestyle from beginning to end, comprehensive in nature. Prayers of faith sometimes look like simple transactions, but they usually only appear that way in people who are thoroughly saturated in the ways of God’s Kingdom over time. We love instant miracles like the ones Jesus did, but we often forget they came in the context of a deep, rich life of prayer on isolated mountains and within inner rooms. If we want that kind of harvest, we need that kind of planting season. In time, the harvest comes.

Spiritual growth consists most in the growth of the root, which is out of sight.