Vital Union

       Sometimes you can read the Word of God and miss understanding or applying it to your life simply because the wording doesn’t impact you.  That’s why I tend to do my basic Bible reading in The Living Bible-TLB, and go back to the other versions for studying the scriptures.  Just read the wording here, and see what I mean.

And now just as you trusted Christ to save you, trust him, too, for each day’s problems; live in vital union with him.  Let your roots grow down into him and draw up nourishment from him.  See that you go on growing in the Lord, and become strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught.  Let your lives overflow with joy and thanksgiving for all he has done.  Col. 2:6,7

       Trust Jesus for each day’s problems.  Yep, it’s what we should do, but do we really.  First off, we don’t always think to include Him in our day- I mean, He’s God and I’m sure He’s got more important things to do, right?  Wrong.  The Lord wants to be a part of our life or else why would He send the Holy Spirit to dwell in us (1Cor. 3:16) giving us a permanent link to Him (Eph 3:17)?  Secondly, when problems arise, we don’t think of Him first, but our own wisdom and logic, trying to find man’s way out.  That usually gets us into trouble.  “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God…” (1Cor. 3:19) “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes…” (Pr. 21:2)

       In contrast, our roots are to receive nourishment from Him-daily-hourly-minutely. (yep, I know, it’s not a word)  He is our Living Water (Jh. 4:10,13) and Bread of Life (Jh. 6:35,51).  We will starve without Him ‘feeding’ us, without His contribution in our lives.  And because He nourishes us, we can grow in Him, and become strong and vital in this world so that we may make a difference, hence the reason the Lord speaks of us as salt and light (Mt. 5:13,14): both are essential in sustaining the world.

 

       Imagine, if it could be done, cutting the roots off of a tree and hoping it will continue to grow, be healthy and strong.  Won’t happen, will it?  The tree, if it can even remain standing, will wither and die without nutrients from the soil.  But we often cut off our roots from the soil of the Lord by not spending time with Him (in the Word, praying, praising, conversing) yet we wonder why we don’t feel strong.  We can’t keep growing without the union of our roots in His soil.  What happens to a tree without roots?  It dies.  What happens when we cut ourselves off from our vital union with Him?  We start to die.

We need to trust the Lord enough to be a part of our lives.

His life is vital to us!