[Excerpt from The Puny Tree – Part One:  “God used a puny tree to physically illustrate to me how He is ALL the strength I need – no matter what I am facing and no matter how puny and insignificant I might believe myself to be, or have allowed others to make me feel, in the midst of all I was personally battling.”

While there will always be many factors that attribute to our battles, the key to whether we ever rise above it or remain in a constant struggle, will ultimately lie with where our faith and trust is rooted.   I’d like to say that my faith and trust was always deeply rooted in God, however, when painful issues of life happened, and I started to enter the door of despair and hopelessness, in all honesty I discovered that my roots were – at best — weak, fragile and broken.

Yet having walked through some extremely painful experiences, I can say, God is all you’ll ever need.  Your roots must not be planted in people, material things, human strategies or well established belief systems, but rather they must be planted in the fertile soil of a relationship with God. This is the foundation from which He will build us up in Him. In John 15:5 Jesus speaks to his disciples saying, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”

Your roots must be planted in God and God alone.

Much like the strength of the puny little Pine tree standing tall and firm, in spite of its outward appearance and lack of physical prowess, we too, when abiding in him can have that same foundation which grows deep and wide. We must be cultivated in the soil of the mysterious truths found deep in the Word of God. Those of you who may have thought of yourselves to be puny, can actually develop the strength and power to withstand any hurt, obstacle or disappointment that may come your way. Our foundation, however, must rest totally on the rich soil of ‘abiding’ and being ‘rooted and grounded’ in Him.