Rooted, Established, Built Up

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

How do we receive Christ Jesus the Lord? By faith (Eph. 2:8-9, 1 Cor 15:1-5). It was in faith that you and I received Jesus. At that point we are called firmly rooted. This is by his work. We are now being built up, where is that? In Him. We are to conduct our every day in the faith and quiet confidence of Him who loved us and gave Himself up for us. (Galatians 2:20, Ephesians 5:25) How are we to continue? How are we to go through our days and our weeks? What is this established, rooted, built up life to look?

First we must realize that we must be walking in faith. The term "walk" is a term that means "the way a person conducts their lives". This is the most ground level reality that you can think of. It's how we get out of bed in the morning. It's how we act when we are held up in line at the gas station or at the doctors. It's how we treat our husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, friends and all of the other people we meet in day to day life. That walk is meant to be in faith. Trusting in what he has done. Most often our sinful behaviors are motivated out of fear. Fear that someone may take something from us, fear that we may not get something that we are entitled to, fear that someone will expose us as weak, hopeless, useless or cruel. We must walk every moment in the faith that we are who HE says we are. It is a day by day, moment by moment walk of trust in Him who is able to do more than we can even think to ask or imagine. (Eph. 3:20-21)

This walk of faith, what does it yield? Galatians tells us that it yields sanctification (the process by which more and more of us is set apart for God in our daily condition - Galatians 5:16). Ephesians 2:10 tells us that it will produce the good works that He prepared in advance for us to do (see the fruit of the Spirit - Galatians 5:22-23), and our passage today tells us that it will yield a life that is "overflowing with gratitude." Are you overflowing with thankfulness and praise today? Look at Christ Jesus the Lord.