Prayers of Paul – Being Rooted and Grounded in Love – Pt.8

“that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love.” (Eph 3:17)

We are continuing our study of Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3. One important thing to understand is that in this prayer there is a cascading effect. The prayer can be seen as a number of steps, layed out one after another. In this case, it is Christ “dwell(ing) in your hearts” that leads to being “rooted and grounded in love”. One thing leads to another. 
So we have come to our being rooted and grounded in love. The first thing to know is that those words rooted and grounded are found in the passive voice. This means that the being rooted and grounded is something happening to the person being prayed for. We have our roots grounded, we don’t ground them ourselves. It is something received. Being rooted and grounded is the result of Christ dwelling in our hearts. And Christ dwelling in our hearts is the result of being “strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man.” You see what I mean. 
In this verse Paul was pointing to the roots of a tree and the foundation of a house. 

Roots

The root system of a tree is quite fascinating. There are two main types of roots: anchoring roots and feeder roots. As you would expect, the anchoring roots go much deeper. In our spiritual life we need both types of roots. We need to feed on God’s word and we need to sink our roots down. But instead of firm soil our roots are being anchored to love. The love of Christ is the only stable thing that we can feed upon and anchor our lives. 

In the parable of the sower we see the result of a person not having this root system in their lives.

“and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they stumble.” (Mark 4:17)

So we see here that being rooted has the effect of anchoring our lives. It is the ultimate protection when persecution of any kind comes. 

Grounded

The Original Greek for the word “grounded” in this verse means “the lay the foundation, establish.” The foundation is what the house is built upon. Obviously, without a solid foundation the house is in great danger of not standing the test of time. 

Jesus had this to say about a house built on a solid foundation:

“and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.” (Matthew 7:25)

The rain, floods and winds are things that come against all of us in this life. Our house will only be able to stand if it is securely founded. In this case the solid ground is love. The love of Christ is solid ground upon which to build our lives. It can withstand all the rain, floods and wind. 

A solid foundation in a home serves two major roles. They support and resisting movement. Without a foundation our homes would just sink into the ground. Also, each foundation is uniquely tailored to the environment that it is in. According to gwsmasonry.com “This involves taking into account the geology, soil conditions, water table, and even the backfill.” God is the Master Builder and he knows how to custom make a foundation for our lives. Instead of using concrete He pours love. 

The second crucial thing the foundation does is resist movement. The rain, floods and wind have a goal of moving us from our position. That is why Paul said again and again in Ephesians 6 “stand.” Well, we cannot properly stand or stand for long if we do not have a solid foundation. 

I will end by sharing our highlighted verse in the Passion Translation

“Then, by constantly using your faith, the life of Christ will be released deep inside you, and the resting place of his love will become the very source and root of your life.” (Eph 3:17, TPT)

Lord, we agree with Paul in asking that our lives would be rooted and grounded in love. We recognize that Your love is the only source of nourishment and strength for lives. We do not want to build our lives on anything else but the solid foundation of Your love. In Jesus’ name.