Rooted and Built Up in Him

Rooted and Built Up in Him

By M.T. Clark — P-2056 | 08/31/2026 – Today’s Audio Podcast

Today’s Message on YouTube:

Today’s photo of a gravel pathway lined with tall grass and wildflowers in the foreground of a rustic split-rail wooden fence sitting in a mowed field of green under a bright sun set in a wispy cloud-scattered blue sky comes to us from yours truly, as I captured this peaceful roadside scene at the entrance of the Siegel-Kline Kill Nature Preserve on September 12, 2023.

Well, it’s Monday, and I share this photo of a quiet roadside pathway at the entrance of a beautiful nature preserve to remind us that a new week is a fresh invitation from the Lord to say yes to the new places, the new people, and the new opportunities He has arranged for us to see and enjoy.

I took this photo back on September 12, 2023, on a semi-spontaneous after-work outing to the Siegel-Kline Kill Nature Preserve, where I joined a guided tour of the grounds led by volunteers from the Columbia Land Conservancy (columbialand.org). It was one of those evenings when I could have easily gone straight home and settled in for the night, but I decided to accept the invitation instead, and by God’s grace, He met me out there.

Sometimes we have to take advantage of the planned opportunities the Lord puts in front of us, going out to places we have never been with people we have never met, so we can appreciate the beauty of the world our Heavenly Father has made and share that joy with others. So, keep your eyes open this week for the ordinary invitations that come your way, and don’t be quick to turn them down. The Lord tends to meet us in the places we almost didn’t go.

Speaking of putting down fresh roots in the good soil the Lord has prepared for us,

We begin our new series, “Rooted in Him”, which will bring us through Paul’s letter to the Colossians.  Today we begin with our core verse, and with what it means to be rooted and built up in Christ.

Rooted and Built Up in Him

God means for us to “grow down” before we ever try to “grow up”. Paul lays the foundation in a single sentence, and Colossians 2:6-7 (NKJV) puts it plainly: “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.”

Let’s notice where Paul begins. He doesn’t start with a list of things to do. He starts with something we have already received. We have received Christ Jesus as our Lord, and everything else in the verse grows out of that.

Let’s look at how Paul says we are to walk. “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” The way we received Him is the way we keep going in Him. We didn’t receive Christ by cleaning ourselves up and earning His favor. We have received Him by grace, through faith, as a gift.

So, we walk the same way we started, leaning on His grace, trusting His finished work, and not switching over to our own effort once we are in the kingdom.

Many believers start with grace and then quietly try to continue by their own willpower, and they wonder why their joy runs out. Paul tells us to keep on walking the way we came in.

Then Paul gives us two pictures of what a healthy Christian life looks like, one from the garden and one from the construction site. First, we are “rooted” in Him. The root is hidden, quiet, and unglamorous, but it is where the whole plant draws its life, and it is what holds the tree steady when the wind blows.

To be rooted in Christ is to have the hidden, daily part of our lives grounded in Him, drawing our strength from Him when no one else is watching.

Second, we are “built up” in Him. That is the picture of a building rising, brick by brick, on a solid foundation. Being rooted is about drawing life; being built up is about steady growth over time. One is downward and hidden, the other is upward and visible, and both are happening in a healthy believer at once.

I spent years, in my walk before Christ, trying to build a life that had no roots, and I can tell you it doesn’t hold. I kept trying to construct something stable out of my own effort, my own preferences, my own image, and my own attempts to feel like I was enough, and the first strong wind knocked it flat every time, because there was nothing underneath it to hold it up.

When I finally received Christ back in 2010, the Lord started doing the hidden work first. Through a new desire to study His word and to follow the Lord authentically, God put roots down into me before He built much of anything up on top, and that order turned out to be everything. The stability I had chased for years didn’t come from finally trying harder. With God’s help, it came from being rooted in Someone who doesn’t move.

Paul adds that this rooted, built-up life leaves us established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.” Established means settled and firm, no longer blown around by every feeling or the latest fad.

And let’s notice how the verse ends: with thanksgiving. A life rooted in Christ isn’t grim or white-knuckled. It overflows, and what it overflows with is gratitude, because the believer who knows that his or her life is drawing on the grace of God has a lot to be thankful for.

So, let the order of this verse settle you. You have received Christ as a gift, so keep walking in Him the same way. Let Him do the hidden work in you first, and trust Him to build you up over time, one brick at a time, until you are settled and established and overflowing with thanks to God.

You don’t have to manufacture your own stability. Come to the Lord early and often, stay rooted in Him, and let His grace hold you steady through whatever the day brings. He is the One who is already holding you up, and He will not let you down.

Every step we take toward the Lord is a step in the right direction. So, keep on walking and talking with God.

— M.T.

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“The views, opinions, and commentary of this publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries, or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the author may represent.”

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