For us, much of this (contextually) relates in the context of marriage. Stepping out of each others shadow, learning healthy independence, embracing the risk of genuine sacrificial love, letting go of long held fears. Journeying to new places in Christ can be scary. Journeying to new geographic places scary too! I hope it resonates and encourages you in spirit.
To follow the adventure leading Creator is never random. We can trust that we’re not being led into ambiguity or valleys for their own sake or some non-redemptive process.
There’s a danger, I think, in our journey of faith to become overly introspective, losing track of the grounding, relational purposes of God. As he takes us into uncharted places (in reality or metaphorically), his intentional, relational purposes won’t change, because his character has been clearly revealed in Jesus.
He wants us to become his dwelling place, and increasingly so.
Whatever God has done in the past, is doing today, or do in the future, will never stray from His focused passion to reside intimately in us, and us in him. Doesn’t that comfort you? It does me.
Col 2:7 ‘Keep your roots deep in him, build your lives on him.
Paul does something interesting, he mixes metaphors between a fruit tree and a constructed building.
Rooted relates to the eternal, powerful seeds already sown in us through the good news in Jesus, that they take root, spread deep and wide.. grounding us for the building of something! For what? The habitation of God through the Spirit (Eph 2:21-22, Eph 3:17).
In Eph 3:13-14 Paul affirms this more, using again the rooted and grounding metaphor. This time, the rooting is ‘in love’. That we would ‘know the love of Jesus.’ Why is it so important that we know this love? He concludes, that we could be ‘filled to the fullness’ of Him. Rooting, again is about being this container, or tabernacle of the presence of God. Ephesians and Colossians passages are both saying essentially, “Dig in, I want to fill you”.
We can trust the processes of God because His unchanging intent is to use them to increasingly abide in us. Our focus is on the rooting our faith in the person of Jesus, diving deep into Him with our whole heart, mind, soul.