Colossians 2:6-7 

“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”

The Results of Rooting Deep 

The prophet Jeremiah wrote about believers who had matured in their relationship with God by using an amazing word picture common in the desert Middle-East…

This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD. That person will be like a bush in the wastelands; they will not see prosperity when it comes. They will dwell in the parched places of the desert in a salt land where no one lives. But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” (Jeremiah 17:5-8)

Why do you think “trusting in man” can create a lack of fruitfulness in our lives?

What is significant about the phrase “and whose heart turns away from the Lord” in context?

What do you think Jeremiah meant by the phrase “planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream”? How do you think this translates spiritually in the life of the believer?

Paul wrote in Colossians 2:7 that “overflow” is the result of the rooting process. What are you currently “overflowing with thankfulness” for?