I was removing some trees with my skid the other day, I have an attachment that will pull up a tree, roots and all if it is 20 feet or so tall. If I want to remove a larger tree, sometimes these are 70 foot trees, I can’t begin to budge it even a little bit. So what I have to do with this attachment is to let it go down and cut the roots. One at a time. You don’t have to cut all of the roots, just enough to allow it to be pushed over without much effort. Once the tree is pushed over it is pretty easy to cut the rest of the roots and it can very easily be moved over to where it will be piled up with other dead trees. And doing that got me to thinking…

A tree’s strength comes from its roots. Our strength comes from being rooted in God’s Word. No matter how strong we are spiritually, if we allow satan to start cutting off our root system (God’s Word) it will weaken us. He won’t cut all the roots at once, no he will start with just one root. One temptation. If that works then he starts on the second one. And before you know it you are weak, so much so that satan can easily push you over.

Colossians 2:6-7 says "Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving."

Ephesians 3:17 says, "So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith - that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."

Isaiah 11:1 says, "There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit."

The tree can not and will not bear fruit if the root system is weak. If our root system is weak, it is not likely that we will be producing fruit either.

-Cecil