20/20: God's Vision For My LifeSample

Rooted in Love

By Angie Schuller Wyatt

Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Ephesians 3:17–19

Have you ever felt trapped by wounds from your past? You want to believe your faith in God can pull you out, but your circumstances don’t leave you with much hope. Then, when your situation doesn’t get any better, your negative feelings begin to hold you back from becoming the person Jesus redeemed you to be. The reality is, only God can set you free.

I know. I’ve been there.

For me, it was my parents’ divorce. Before it happened, I was best buds with my dad. But the divorce changed all that. I was hurt by the accusations flying around. I was angry when he remarried. I felt so abandoned.

In my mind, my dad was the bad guy. The truth is that he was a really good dad. But, I was so hurt that I couldn’t see past my pain. I held on to resentment like a comfort blanket. It made me feel justified in my unforgiveness.

But then when I was in college, I heard a really compelling sermon about forgiveness. After the sermon, I asked my dad to forgive me. He simply said, “I forgive you,” but it felt like a slap in the face. At that moment, I realized I hadn’t truly forgiven him. Instead, I was trying to get him to ask me for forgiveness. When he didn’t ask for my forgiveness, I became even more bitter and resentful.

Some time passed, and I heard yet another great sermon about forgiveness. This time I was determined to forgive. I wanted to be a good Christian, so I chose to forgive because it was “the right thing to do.”

I started telling all my friends that I forgave my dad. Yet deep down, I was still resentful. I didn’t want to be around him for fear that we would argue. Our petty fights left me feeling rejected and misunderstood. I developed a nasty cycle of deciding to forgive, getting hurt, talking badly about my dad, then forgiving all over again.

I grew tired of this emotional rollercoaster. I wanted lasting freedom. I started to wonder if I could ever truly forgive. Could I really be set free from pain and resentment?

One day, while reading my Bible, I began to meditate on Ephesians 3:17–19:

Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

While reading this passage, I had a vision of a tree with huge roots deeply embedded in the earth. And then I realized that I was that tree—filled with the strength of God’s love. God spoke to me through that vision, and I began to understand that His love could sustain me through any conflict. I didn’t have to live in emotional turmoil. I could trust God with my heart. Instantly, I was set free. I was no longer stuck. Everything changed.

God’s love pushed resentment and anger out of my soul, and I finally started living as the person I was created and redeemed to be. The longer I stayed “rooted and grounded” in love, the easier it was for me to interact with my dad.

In fact, I discovered that I really liked him. We went fishing and took long walks. We had heartfelt conversations, and we prayed together. If he said something that hurt my feelings, I just imagined myself as a tree. I let his words pass through my branches. I was rooted and grounded in God’s love. With His love, anything was possible.

Several years later, my dad introduced me to the man I ended up marrying. I’ve always thought this was a beautiful illustration of God’s redemptive love. In the first years of life, my relationship with my dad brought me the greatest pain. Then, through God’s love, my dad introduced me to my husband and the relationship that brings me the greatest joy.

If I’m struggling, it’s not because of what I’ve been through. It’s because of what I came to believe when I went through it. God heals me, not by changing my past, but by revealing truth and displacing lies.
~ Alan Smith

Memory Verse

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 2 Corinthians 3:17