What is having good roots? Is it being well-grounded? Is it to have a firm foundation? Is it how they were raised as a child? Some people talk about having good roots but their actions counter what they say.
God does not pass judgment on individuals based on race, sex, or national origin. His judgment of them is based on their trust in Him, their obedience, and their reaction to His will.
The individuals who are saved by grace and delight in God's will resemble vigorous, fruit-bearing trees with solid roots (Jeremiah 17:5-8).
God vows to look out for these individuals, and His wisdom guides their lives. The individuals who don't comply with God have futile lives that are like dust in the wind. Whichever path we choose determines our destiny.
1. Delight in the Law of the Lord
The psalmist started his hymn praising the delights of being a faithful individual — one who obeys God and will not tune in to the individuals who dishonor or disparage Him. Our companions, friends, and family can impact us.
If we demand fellowship with the individuals who laugh at what God considers significant, we sin by becoming unresponsive to God's will. Do your companions help develop your trust in God, or do they tear it down? The impact of genuine companions should attract you closer to God.
The psalmist says we ought to maintain a strategic distance from the association of mocking sinners if we want to obtain God’s joy. We ought to likewise look for a comprehension of God through His Word.
The impact of scoffers separates us from the brilliance of God's joyful company, as a foreboding cloud separates us from the joy of viewing the morning sun.
Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you” (2 Corinthians 6:17).
There are two ways of life before us — God's method for dutifulness, or the method for resistance and death. Are we in the world but not of the world? Do non-Christian friends/family influence us more?
If the world influences us, we become separated from God; it robs us of peace and fellowship with God. Do we prefer dark clouds or sunshine?
I abhor the assembly of evildoers and refuse to sit with the wicked (Psalm 26:5).
Though people tried to bribe me, I have kept myself from the ways of the violent through what your lips have commanded (Psalm 17:4).
2. Meditates on the Word of God Day and Night
We can figure out how to follow God by meditating on His Word. Meditating implies investing energy perusing and contemplating what we read. It implies asking ourselves how we should change so we live as God wants.
Knowing and contemplating God's Word are the initial moves toward applying it to our daily lives. If we want to follow God even more intently, we should recognize what He says.
This “law of the Lord” incorporates all Scripture: the initial five books of Moses, the prophets, and the other compositions. The more we are aware of the entire extent of God's Word, the more assets we will have for our day-by-day choices.
The more we permit dark impacts of the individuals who mock God to eclipse us, the more we separate ourselves from our wellspring of sustenance, God the Father.
We should remember that dry ground soaks in water and spiritual nourishment/water comes from God’s Word.
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15).
The heart of the righteous weighs its answers, but the mouth of the wicked gushes evil (Proverbs 15:28).
3. Yield Fruit in Season
We should have contact with unbelievers if we are to witness to them, yet we should not be affected to join or emulate their conduct. Yet, if we want joy, warm up to the individuals who love God and His Word.
When we get planted in God’s Word, the deeper roots we will have, and we will become a stronger tree. The more we stay in God’s Word, the more fruitful we will become.
He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots (Matthew 15:13).
Rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness (Colossians 2:7).
Look at the last part of verse 3 in Psalm 1, “In all he does, he prospers.”
That does not mean that we will never face defeat or have adversity. It is not a guarantee that we will always have good health, riches, or contentment. To have prosperity, we must apply God’s wisdom to ourselves and in turn, we will be fruitful and meet God’s approval.
This does not mean that what we do in our own power is prosperous, but that God’s Word will prosper. The result of the action taken will prosper but it may not happen immediately.
As a tree absorbs water and bears good fruit, we are, too, to absorb God’s Word, which produces activities and perspectives that respect God. To accomplish anything beneficial we should have God’s Word in our souls. We are the instrument of the Lord, to do His bidding.
For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless (Psalms 84:11).
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 17:8).
The Lord Knows the Way of the Righteous
Chaff is the external shell (or husk) that must be evacuated to get at the significant bits of grain inside. Chaff was evacuated by a procedure called threshing (sifting) and winnowing (to blow a current of air).
After the plants were cut, they were squashed, and afterward, the pieces were tossed into the air. Chaff is light and is diverted by the smallest breeze, while the good grain falls back to the earth.
Chaff is an image of an unfaithful life that floats along without heading, without direction, aimless. Good grain is an image of a dedicated life that can be utilized by God. In contrast to grain, we can pick the course we take.
Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters, when he rebukes them they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweed before a gale (Isaiah 17:13).
Although worldly individuals may get or seem to get the higher ground on occasion (everything seems to go their way), God’s Word guarantees us that a day is coming when their transgressions and sins will be punished.
In the meantime, God looks out for the plans and motivations behind the faithful.
Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness” (2 Timothy 2:19).
We are to separate ourselves from the world. We are to saturate ourselves in the Word. We are to situate ourselves in God’s ways.
For further reading:
What Is the Parable of the Sower?
Are Karma and 'Reap What You Sow' the Same Thing?
What Does it Mean for Christians to ‘Delight Yourself in the Lord’?
What Does it Mean ‘Blessed Is the Man Who Does Not Walk in the Counsel of the Wicked’?
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