Roots Go Deeper Than Feelings

And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness; And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended. (Mark 4:16-17)

There is a kind of response to the Word that looks like faith but is not. The stony-ground hearer in Jesus' parable did not reject the Word. They received it with gladness. There was real excitement about taking what God had told them. But when pressure came, when thlipsis arrived (the Greek word for pressure and tribulation) and diagmos (persecution and attack), they fell apart. They immediately became offended and gave up. What they had was an emotional response without depth.

The word translated as "offended” here is skandalizo, and it means to fall into a trap, to stumble, to quit. God is not just looking for an initial emotional response to the Word; He wants the Word to take root in you. Roots are built over time, through meditation, and by consistently letting the Word get deeper and deeper inside you until it is no longer just something you heard once that made you feel good. It becomes something you know and is part of you.

You might as well stop being surprised that pressure comes. Life is full of it. There will always be affliction. There will always be people who come against what God has said over you. There will always be moments when the circumstances directly contradict the Word you received with gladness. That is not the test of whether the Word is true. That is the test of how deep the root goes. And how deep the root goes depends entirely on what you have been doing with the Word between the gladness and the pressure. How you handle pressure and what you use to handle it determine whether you win or lose.

Practical Application

Be honest with yourself about whether your relationship with the Word is rooted or primarily emotional. If you tend to get excited about a Scripture and then forget it when pressure comes, that is a root issue. This week, take one Word, one Scripture that God has placed on your heart, and go deeper with it. Study its context, meditate on it morning and night, and build some root under what God has shown you.

Colossians 2:7; Ephesians 3:17