Forty five years ago, Christ came into my heart, but I just discovered this Scripture in my daily reading yesterday.  I have to root myself in Him and then God’s love will make me strong.  Sometimes I feel like I am a tree bowing before the winds of life and about to fall over.  But God’s Word says that since I am rooted in Him, I will remain strong.  No matter what comes against me, I am growing taller and stronger in the Lord because I am rooted and grounded in Him.  My faith is not in my own ability; my faith is in His ability.  I am absolutely sure that I can trust the Creator of the Universe to keep me on the right path and safe in His love because He planted me and he is watering me daily with His Word, so I am growing.

I am claiming God’s promises for me and my children and grandchildren. I will not fear when the “heat” is turned up and things are all going in the wrong way.  I claim for us that we will have no worries during drought because the Lord’s Word will be planted deeply in the roots of our hearts and we will always bear fruit for Him.

I do not believe in the “prosperity gospel” that has been preached recently.  You may recognize it as “Name, it and claim it.”  I don’t think that God is a good fairy or fairy godmother waiting to grant my every wish.  But I do think that He will meet all of my needs and that my prosperity will be evident, not in material possessions, but instead in the little saplings growing around me, those children and grandchildren who also have a relationship with the Lord and are growing deep roots.

God awakens me each day with thanksgiving on my lips for a new day and the promises of His grace and mercy daily.  He brings to my remembrance all of the times He has been with me, the hard times when I was mourning or when I was alone with three children in a new place.  He reminds me that He has never left me, that I am one of his trees that He has planted by the water, that my roots are planted deeply in Him and I will grow and be strong.  Life’s storms will buffet you; this is a given because they come to everyone.  You can be a tree planted by the waters of life if you just let the Lord be the guide and center of your life.  I read the Book of John and was convicted of my sins forty five years ago.  There is no magic formula for asking Jesus to come into your heart and to begin living for Him.  You just have to do it so you can find His peace and love and strength and live eternally with Him.