Part 2

Hello ,

Roots determine fruit.

You can staple apples onto a dead tree, but that doesn’t make it alive. Eventually the truth shows. Leaves wither. Fruit falls. The outside cannot sustain what the roots do not support.

Scripture paints a different picture for the faithful:

“He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither…” (Psalm 1:3).

Jeremiah echoes it: “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord… For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters… and will not fear when heat comes.” (Jeremiah 17:7–8).

Notice something important: the heat still comes.

The righteous are not exempt from drought. 

The difference is access. Their roots reach a source others cannot see.

In the 1930s, during the Dust Bowl, massive storms swept across the American Midwest. Farms were destroyed. Topsoil blew away. Crops died. But one plant endured better than most — prairie grass. Why? Its roots stretched as deep as fifteen feet underground. While surface crops failed, the deep-rooted grass held the soil together.

Depth preserved the land.

In the Christian life, depth preserves the soul.

If your faith depends on emotional highs, church programs, or smooth circumstances, it will struggle when drought hits. But if your roots are sunk into Scripture, prayer, and daily surrender — not performance, not religious show, but real trust — you endure.

Being planted means you chose your source. Psalm 1 contrasts two ways: the counsel of the ungodly, or the law of the Lord. What feeds you will form you.

And here’s something else: fruit comes “in its season.” Roots do quiet work long before fruit appears. Growth underground always precedes growth above ground.

So if you feel unseen, uncelebrated, or slow in development, don’t panic. Roots are forming. Stability is strengthening. God is more concerned with depth than display.

When the heat comes — and it will — you will not need to scramble for stability. You will already be anchored.

Stay planted.

Stay near the water.

The season of fruit will come.

Musical Reflection: Like A River Glorious

Have a great day and God bless!

Pastor Mike / The Open Word