Grace Roots

The following is the "welcome message" that I have on my Grace Roots website. I've had the same message there for several years now, partially due to laziness (not taking the time to keep it "fresh"), but also partially because I simply like the message.

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Welcome to Grace Roots! If you're tired of striving and struggling to make your life worth something to God, then my hope is that you'll find some rest and peace here. I believe that what God wants from you more than anything else is... you! As a Christian, you have an unbreakable bond with God Himself (see 1 Cor. 6:17, Rom. 8:35-39), and as you become more and more established and solidified in His unwavering love, commitment and faithfulness to you, this relationship naturally results in fruit that fleshly struggling and striving can never produce.

In order for any plant to grow and thrive and to bear good fruit, it needs to dig its roots deeper and deeper into good soil. Grace is the fertile soil in which real life and godly nutrition for the Christian are found. It takes time for our roots to become firmly established in the fertile soil of grace. In one particular Psalm, we find a great description of what can happen in the lives of those who grow in God's grace over a period of time: They shall flourish like a palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall bear fruit and they shall be fresh and flourishing! (See Psalm 92:12-14).

Does the above description fit your life? If not, what should you do? Should you try harder to get yourself "right with God?" Perhaps you've got a list of things to do or resolutions to keep or steps to take or principles to follow or (you name it) in order to make your life more in line with God's ways. But yet you've been there, done that! You've tried and failed so many times you've lost count.

I offer you a suggestion. STOP trying! I know you want to bear godly fruit. (Or perhaps all the obligations of Christian 'duty' have left you so worn out and indifferent and calloused that you don't give a rip anymore). The point is, you don't need to try harder. You need rest and you need peace!

So remove the mask. Stop the charade. Stop faking it! End the struggle. Jesus isn't struggling with you! He's calling you to rest and peace. He says, "Come to Me and I will give you rest." Stop trying, and instead find the rest you need in Jesus, and get your roots established in the fertile soil of His love and grace. Let go of the notion that you need to do great things for God, and instead start trusting that He is the only one capable of doing anything great with your life! And He will if you quit trying!

...it is good that the heart be established by grace... (Heb 13:9 NKJV)

...grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ...
(2 Pet 3:18 KJV)

Let your roots grow down into him and draw up nourishment from him, so you will grow in faith, strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught...
(Col 2:7 NLT)

- Joel Brueseke, Grace Roots