I was listening to my little Mercy, 2yrs old, singing these words over and over again this morning; “I wanna be unmoveable, unshakable, let my roots go down deep“…I think she learned them during worship at church, I’m not sure, but as I continued to listen to her sweet little voice I couldn’t help but think about a concept that my husband shared with me last week.

My husband said that there have been studies done on trees grown in “bubble environments” without the influence of any external stresses such as; wind, snow, rain, etc. The trees, in these controlled environments would grow tall, however once they got to be a certain height they would fall over or snap in half. Not because they are rotten but because they cannot handle the weight of their branches.

They learned from this study that there is an important correlation between the strength of these trees and the amount of external testing that they endure. The trees would break because they were not strengthen through the testing and trials of the winds or rain. Their roots were not strong nor did they go down deep because they were never tested or challenged. These trees are like people who never work out a single muscle in their body and then are asked to hold a 50 pound weight above their head! They can’t do it. Why? Because they are not strengthened for such a task.

This concept can relate to us in a spiritual sense as well, just like the words of my daughter, if we want to be “unmoveable and unshakeable” in our faith we need to let “our roots go down deep” and in order to have that happen we need to endure trails and testing in our lives! We need to allow the winds of change, hardship and persecution make us stronger so we can handle the growth that the Lord will bring when we are ready. We cannot live in “bubble environments” and expect to be strong Christians. Don’t despise hardships but rejoice in them, knowing that they make us stronger and more equipped to fulfill the call of God on our lives. We need to pray and ask God to challenge us so that our character and our faith can be strong.

May you be unmoveable and unshakable as your roots go down deep. May you endure the winds and rains of harship so that you will stand strong, ready to uphold the weight of His calling on your life!