Rooted and Established

As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk (regulate your lives and conduct yourselves) in union with and conformity to Him.  Have the roots (of your being) firmly and deeply planted (in Him, fixed and founded in Him), being continually built up in Him, becoming increasingly more confirmed and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and abounding and overflowing in it with thanksgiving." Col. 2:6,7 Ampl.

The business of being built up and rooted in Him, often happens in the hidden places of our heart.  It comes in our day-by-day duties, that are not seen by men, but are known by God.  Our encounter of the difficult, and mundane teaches us to walk by faith, and not by what we see or feel.  Do not underestimate, the small and simple steps, of going forward, when you would rather "check out".  Sometimes it is stepping out on the other side of our self, that opens our eyes to seeing the beauty that was right in front of us. Walking by faith, grounds us in the eternal, and gives life to our weary souls.  

"Now, if we talk about lives God blesses, then or now, we're headed for trouble if we stay at the surface of personality and activity.  Blessing rarely seems tied to things that are visible.  Remain there, and I'm not sure we'll learn a thing that will be helpful.......If you want to think through the subject of the life God blesses, go then to the soul, to the deepest parts of "inner space" where God is most likely to visit with a person, whisper His secrets, establish convictions, heal spiritual wounds, generate hope and courage.  If there is something to this business of being blessed by God, that's where you'll find the answers...." The Life God Blesses, Gordon MacDonald

"In the apostle Paul there was a strong steady coherence underneath, consequently he could let his external life change as it liked and it did not distress him, because he was rooted and ground in God.  Most of us are not spiritually coherent because we are more concerned about being coherent externally.  Paul lived in the basement; the coherent critics live in the upper story of the external statement of things, and the two do not begin to touch each other.  Paul's consistency was down in the fundamentals...." My Utmost for His Highest; November 25, Oswald Chambers