Know the Word

If you are not determined to know God through His Word it will never happen.

So many things will crowd Him out of your life. So many other tasks, many of them noble and wonderful, will fill up your days...days that turn into weeks then turn into years. If you do not read His Word, study it, ponder it, fill your soul up with it, how then, will the real you know the real Him?

The seed of life is planted in your heart and He has sent His very Spirit, the Great Gardener, to insure that you will grow and produce fruit. The fruit you seek to see on the branches of your life is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. To grow into that tree planted by the water that bears strong abundant healthy fruit, you must take a look today at your root system.

My spiritual son, Tim, knows much about gardening and plants. For a decade, he has faithfully watched over me, helped me, taught me patiently and thoroughly as I learn to garden, first flowers and now vegetables. He spent hours transplanting flowers after we moved to the Campus House. I tenderly watched and watered and guarded those transplants faithfully, sadly disturbed as green turned to brown, strong turned to weak and then inevitably, winter came bringing death. He reminded me time after time: "It's what's under the soil that matters."

Come spring there were flowers...beautiful pink ones. So it is with the root systems in your heart. An increase of the fruit comes from what is under the soil. Build your root system with a strong foundation in the Word. It has everything you need for life and godliness. It is necessary for knowing Him, having a healthy life and bearing good fruit.

Do you have a teachable spirit? Are you using the "Miracle Grow" of knowing the Word?

As I look at my life and all God, the Great Gardener, has done to grow me to this point, learning the Word, knowing the Word, understanding the Word, practicing the Word is what gave me roots to stand strong and bear fruit.