“That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,” - Eph 3:17 (KJV)

The key to being “rooted and grounded in love” is “Christ (dwelling) in your hearts by faith.” This implies that you are walking in the same humility you had when you first came to Jesus. You weren’t comparing yourself to someone else. You didn’t come to him boasting of all your accomplishments. No, you came empty handed, bankrupt in every way, asking forgiveness and surrendering your will.

To be “rooted and grounded in love” means that at this moment you are still in that place of humility.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. - 1 Cor 13:4-8 (NIV)

When it comes to others, you are “patient” because you recognize God’s patience with you.

You are “kind” because you know the struggles others are going through are not to be overcome in their own strength but by Christ in them and perhaps they just haven’t realized it yet.

You do not “envy” because you know that in Jesus, you have more than your eyes can see.

You do not “boast” in your own sufficiency, but in Christ alone.

You are not “proud” because you know that none that you have accomplished was possible without your eyes and heart fixed on Jesus.

You are not “rude” because life is no longer all about you, but Jesus.

You are not “self-seeking” but seek to build others up.

You are not “easily angered” because as Jesus said from the cross, “they know not what they do,” and you have been in their shoes. Perhaps you are just not seeing it clearly.

You “keep no record of wrongs” because you know that yours were wiped away on the cross before you were born. God foreknew that you would turn to him and you trust that others will see your example and turn to him also.

You do “not delight in evil but rejoice with the truth” because as you are walking in love, you are an eyewitness of Jesus expressing himself through you and lives are being changed all around you.

You “always protect, always trust, always hope, and always persevere” because you know that God is faithful to work “all things together for the good of those who love him, to those who are the called according to his purpose.”

“Love never fails”, it always creates harmony and unity, as Jesus prayed:  “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” - John 17:21 (KJV)

May God help us to continue in that humility that causes us to be “rooted and grounded in love”

         God bless, Orval