This will ignite your faith to fully grasp the reality of the indwelling Christ. You are rooted and founded in love. Love is your invisible inner source, just like the root system of a tree and the foundation of a building.
— Ephesians 3:17 (Mirror Bible)
In some versions this verse says “Being rooted and grounded in love.” The common thought about this verse is that you are to be rooted and grounded by loving others. While this is true, you are to love others, it is not the starting point. Rather, loving others is the byproduct of being rooted in His love.
A tree can be swayed by the winds, and knocked around but if it is correctly and deeply rooted, it will not be uprooted. The key here is to be correctly and deeply rooted.
Once I am rooted in knowing I am His beloved (Romans 9:25), nothing can shake me. If I am shaken then this is a sign indicating that I am not rooted in His love for me.
Our thoughts convince us that we have been uprooted out of God’s love for us based on what it looks like and feels like around us. We think God is not as pleased and doesn’t love us at the moment because, well, we don’t measure up, or the current circumstances feel so loud around us. These are plaguing thoughts and they come to us along with feelings that God has abandoned us.
If we buy into these thoughts, feelings, and questions being unable to shake them, these will become our belief system. Over time we start to believe God is not as good or as loving as we had thought and that His love comes and goes based on me. When we believe we have to do something to make ourselves right with God, that God has abandoned us, then this is a telltale sign we have a wrong belief system
God’s love is based on WHO HE IS, not on what it looks like or feels like. My thoughts may argue but the truth is God is Love. He can be nothing else. That is the core of His being. Being rooted in His love is standing on how Jesus portrayed the Father. Jesus is the expression of the Father’s thoughts toward us.
How did Paul and Silas, when beaten to a pulp, praise Him in the jail? (Acts 16:23-25). How did Peter sleep in prison between the guards knowing an impending death sentence was coming? (Acts 12:6). How did David say God was with Him when being chased by his son while in the valley of the shadow of death? (Psalm 3). How did these people in the Bible, our examples, stand firm when there was no deliverance in sight?
It was because they knew God’s character, His love and reminded themselves of that. Thus keeping themselves in the love of God. He does not change. He is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Circumstances change, this is a fact, but God does not. Your thoughts can make you feel separated and abandoned but the truth is He loves you and nothing can separate you from His love.
“Keep yourself in the love of God”
You are the Joy of His Heart