Stay Rooted

Stay Rooted

By M.T. Clark — P-2079 | 09/26/2026 – Today’s Audio Podcast

Today’s Message on YouTube:

Today’s photo of a wooden dock over a quiet pond in the foreground of the ball field lights and bleachers at East Field, under a soft twilight sky, comes to us from yours truly, as I captured this simple evening scene at East Field in Glens Falls, NY, on July 31, 2026.

Well, it’s Saturday, and I share this photo of a ball field at twilight to remind us that even the most ordinary places can be beautiful when we are walking with the Lord and we appreciate them as the places that God has provided us with.

This is just a simple scene from my life near my home. I stepped out onto the dock at East Field’s pond in Glens Falls, and the Friday-night lights of the ball field were coming on across the way. I was at peace and I was happy, and the whole scene just looked good to me. Some of the sweetest moments the Lord gives us are the ones we don’t schedule. He gives them to us when we walk out the door, and He waits to see whether we will notice. So, take a good look this morning at whatever peaceful scene the Lord has set in front of you today, and thank Him for the life He has given you to live in it.

Speaking of the settled peace the Lord has for those who stay rooted in Him,

Our series, “Rooted in Him,” comes to a close today with Paul’s invitation to walk in Christ, rooted and built up in Him.

Stay Rooted

The Apostle Paul brings us back to the anchor verse of our series, in Colossians 2:6-7 (NKJV) tells us: “As you have therefore 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.”

Paul begins where every Christian life begins. He says we “received Christ Jesus the Lord”. That isn’t a program we signed up for. It was a Person we received, by grace, through faith. Paul is reminding us that the door into the Christian life is the door we already walked through, and there is no other way in.

Then Paul says the words that change everything that comes after. “So, walk in Him.” The way we walk out our Christian life is the same way we entered it. We walked in by faith. So, we are to walk on by faith. We received Jesus as a gift, and we are to keep receiving Him as a gift. Paul isn’t telling us to graduate to a more advanced form of faith. He is telling us to keep walking with the same Jesus who saved us.

This is our rest and direction at the same time. It is a rest, because we don’t have to earn what we have already been given. And it is a direction, because we don’t stand still. The Christian life is a walk, and a walk goes somewhere.

Then Paul stacks four descriptions of what a healthy walk with Jesus looks like:

• Rooted,
• Built up,
• Established,
• And Abounding.

Every one of those words is worth contemplating, because they describe a life that is growing in Christ.

“Rooted in Him.” A tree that has deep roots is a tree that stands when the wind blows. Paul is telling us that our roots go into a Person, not into a set of rules or a religious tradition. When our roots are in Jesus, the storms of life can shake our branches, but they can’t move our roots.

“Built up in Him.” This is construction language, giving us the picture of a life being built one honest choice at a time on a foundation that will hold. God is building us into the men and women He created us to be, and Jesus is both the foundation and the master builder of the project.

“Established in the faith.” Established means being settled, planted firmly, and no longer being tossed around by every new voice that comes along. A believer who is established knows what he believes and Who he belongs to.

“Abounding in it with thanksgiving.” Abounding is a life that is overflowing, not because the circumstances have all worked out, but because the heart is full of gratitude for a God who has already saved us, kept us, and set us on our feet on the solid rock that is Christ. Thanksgiving is the natural response of a person who knows what he has been given.

Paul finishes with a small phrase that keeps us humble. “As you have been taught.” We didn’t come up with this on our own. Paul is telling us that we didn’t invent the Christian life. We have received it. It has been handed down to us, through the Scriptures and through the faithful believers who have walked ahead of us. Our part is to keep walking in what we have received and not to keep looking for a version that is more impressive than what the Lord has already given us.

I know what this walk feels like from the inside now, by God’s grace. When the Lord saved me back in 2010, I wasn’t a rooted man. I wasn’t built up. I wasn’t established. And I definitely wasn’t abounding in thanksgiving. Over the years since then, I have watched the Lord slowly grow all four of those things in me. It didn’t happen because I got clever. It happened because I kept coming to Jesus, and Jesus kept teaching me and helping me to grow.

There have been many storms throughout the years since 2010. Some of them were hard, and one or two of them shook me. But my roots held, because my roots were in Jesus, who never moves. And every one of those storms became one more thing to be thankful for on the other side, because the Lord used them to cause me to grow in ways that nothing else could.

Take Paul’s words as an invitation to go deeper in your faith. Keep receiving Jesus. Keep walking in Him. Let Him grow your roots deeper, build you up higher, establish you firmer, and fill you fuller with thanksgiving. That is what the Christian life is, from the day we first meet Jesus to the day we see Him face to face.

So, come to the Lord for what you need, sink your roots deeper into Christ, and walk today in your relationship with the Lord as a person who is rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith, and abounding with thanksgiving.

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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