GROUNDED

If indeed you continue in the faith, GROUNDED and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister – Colossians 1:23

The Ordered Life is a GROUNDED Life – a life of “faith grounded and settled” (Col.1:23); one that is “rooted and grounded in love” (Eph.3:17). Rooting precedes grounding! The root is the part of a plant which enters and fixes itself in the earth, and serves to support the plant in an erect position, and by means of its fibrils obtains and supplies nutrients for the stem, branches, and fruit. "Rooted" is from the verb rhizoo, which means: "to cause to take root, to become firmly rooted or fixed." The perfect tense suggests the thought of something that took place in the past, but whose effects persist in the present. "Grounded" is from themelioo, which means: "to lay a basis for, to build upon a foundation, to build, to be founded, to be grounded." One is a botanical metaphor, the other structural. In a sense, the latter appears superior: a plant may be uprooted and replanted, but a grounded building is never intended to be repositioned; it is fixed to function, it is set to stay!

Our lives are to be built deep in the foundation of God’s love. This pictures a solid building with a foundation that goes down to the bedrock. It can withstand a flood or an earthquake, because it is built on the rock. Christ’s love for us is not based on fluctuating feelings or circumstances. Rather, it is solid and steady, undergirding everything else in life. We can't handle life unless we have a solid foundation, unless we are rooted and grounded in love – in the assurance that our Father-God loves us deeply. The tendency for many people in times of adversity is to question God’s love. Because we are is hurting so bad and hard, our emotions cause us to feel like God has forsaken him. But the Scripture teaches that His love is just as real in times of adversity as it is in times of blessings. His love to us is unchangeable.

Paul prayed in Ephesians 3: 17-19 that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith; that we, “being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height – to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Rooting and grounding do not come through carnal or natural efforts; they are products of being “strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man” and Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith (Eph.3:16-17). In other words, the result of being strengthened with power through God's Spirit in the inner man is that Christ will come to be at home in our hearts through faith, resulting in our being rooted and grounded in love. Practically, being grounded in God’s love and faith is to know Him personally and intimately.

When you are grounded in God, you never seem to have enough of Him. Nowhere else can please you than His Presence. You long and thirst for deeper communion with the Father. Early at dawn and late at night you’ll get into private meetings with Him, where you’ll not just ask Him for things, but share your deepest and most intimate thoughts, desires, hopes and dreams with Him. You’ll sing and worship Him with your full, unrestricted emotions. You learn to listen to His voice as He shares His thoughts with you. The more time you spend with God and listen to Him, the more you grow to love Him. Such spiritual disciplines are the emblems of the Ordered Life, which will carry you throughout your Christian life. You’ll grow to love your time alone with God and cherish it so much that it is your top priority daily. The first voice, the first thought or the first counsel you want to hear in the morning isn’t Facebook, twitter or TV; it is the Voice of God.