The Mirror of the Word by C.E. White can be purchased here: https://www.amazon.com/Mirror-Word-Devotions-Reveal-Refine/dp/B0DFZS83C7  To learn more about this author and other works, visit https://cewhitebooks.com/

“Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.”

—Colossians 2:6–7

When I was little, I tried to water our plants by pouring the water on the leaves, spilling it everywhere. I didn’t yet understand roots; I only understood the plant by what I could see of it with my own eyes.

We often do the same thing in our Christian lives, spending all our time “watering the leaves.” We focus on the parts of us that are seen while never actually nourishing our roots. All of that is fruitless, spilling our effort in useless activity.

We’ll never grow strong and fruitful except by abiding in the vine (John 15). We must be “rooted and built up” in Jesus—attending to the unseen parts of ourselves by spending time in the Word, praying, studying, praising, living gratefully, taking our thoughts captive, working to heal from past hurts, and being transformed by the renewing of our minds.

When we tend the roots, sometimes the plant itself might look a bit scraggly for a while, and it may be a long time before that plant is able to bear fruit. But the alternative is painting the leaves green and hanging fake fruit on them. This might make us look healthy to other people, but we’ll be withering away inside, and we can’t keep that up for long.

No one can see our roots, but they make all the difference in our real spiritual health. We need to stop trying to fake the health of our leaves by managing only our outward behavior, and start checking that we’re rooted in Christ.

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