My Pastor asked us to pray and ask God where in our lives it was unhealthy. I felt God say, “Sarah, it’s your roots.” Ouch. I felt like I was starting back at square one. Roots? Really? Isn’t that what you should work on when you’re a baby Christian?
Oh, the Lord sure did humble me.
A few weeks later I got the book “Rooted – The Hidden Places Where God Develops” by Banning Liebscher in the mail. We have had the privilege to be a part of their launch team, but I knew that God was going to use this book to really speak into me and to my lack of roots. I felt like my roots were damaged – poisoned at times.
Growth would begin and the roots would spread, but once I let a lie into my life and believed it fully, it was like I was sprinkling poison right on the spot. I haven’t always been confident in who I was in Christ. I have not always been confident in scripture. A lot of the time, I am not believing God at His Word.
Banning talks about our root system in his book.
“Your heart is your point of connection with Jesus – the place where you become rooted in your relationship with Him. He wants to develop His heart-to-heart connection with you to the point where you become fully united with Him, where you think like He thinks, want what He wants, speak like He speaks, and do what He does.” p. 4
I feel like this quote just sets up the whole book. How is your connection Him? How has my connection with Him? Am I thinking like Him? Speaking like Him?
Grace covered my thoughts and guilt when I knew that my connection wasn’t as great as I wanted it to be. Banning uses David to share how it took almost two decades for him to stand on the throne. During those years up until his reign, David spent many intimate moments with the Lord which developed his root system. I think as believers we feel that it should take us a few years in prayer and quality time with the Lord, and then we are ready to go do whatever God has planned. But as Banning explains using David, Moses, and Abraham…it took years.
Years.
Banning also writes about 3 types of soil that will with interact with to help with our rooting process: intimacy, serving, & community.
“A thriving root system is built on trust and truth, which grow strong in our lives as we come to know God through His Word and through personal encounters with Him. However, in order to build our roots in truth , God needs to plant our lives in various soils where we gain specific nutrients for growth…God’s process in David’s life placed him into three different soils that developed the different dimensions of trust and truth in his life…each of these soils teaches us how to align our lives with God’s truth and leads us to encounter God in different ways.” p. 98
He defines these soils deeper, with great stories and backs up everything with scripture. That’s what I really enjoyed about the book – the scripture he uses. As much as I love stories, and Banning uses great God stories throughout, scripture is so important with me. I want to know exactly what God has to say about building my root system.
With all that saying, I would recommend reading this book. If you feel like you’re in a dry season or you just don’t know how to start to establish your roots, this is your book. It’s easy to read, but impacted with truth. I would read a chapter, highlight, annotate, and sit with it for the night. This is a book for new believers and for those who have loved the Lord for many years. I never walked away feeling like being rooted would be difficult. I felt encouraged and challenged.
Find it here on Amazon – click here.
We are also giving away a free copy of Rooted to one of our readers! Enter the giveaway below!
*winner of giveaway was Mackenzie Lynn Beaty*