Where Are Your Roots Planted?

Today's Reading: Psalm 80
  
     This psalm of Asaph speaks of Israel's plight.  They feel that God has turned his back on them, leaving Israel exposed to her enemies' attacks.  He describes Israel as a grapevine in verse 8-11: You brought us from Egypt like a grapevine, drove out the pagan nations and transplanted us in your land. You cleared the ground for us and we took root and filled the land.  Our shade covered the mountains; our branches covered the mighty cedars.  We spread our branches west to the Mediterranean Sea; our shoots spread east to the Euphrates River.  Then Asaph continues by describing Israel's enemies in verse 12-13: But now, why have you broken down our walls so that all who pass by may steal our fruit?  The wild boar, from the forest devours it, and the wild animals feed on it.  He even describes what they have done to Israel in verse 16: For we are chopped up and burned by our enemies.  They have plundered the city and burned it to the ground.
     The words that are repeated through this psalm like a chorus (psalms were written to be sung) are: Turn us again to yourself, O Lord God of Heaven's Armies.  He is speaking here to God as the great general and commander of this great army, pleading for their protection.  Make your face shine down upon us.  Only then will we be saved.  Asaph knows that God is the only one who has the power to save Israel and he also knows that if God wills it then it will be.
     Where are your roots planted today?  Are they in the sand of this world, ready to be washed away at the slightest hint of a storm or area you grounded in the rich dark soil of God, where little can shake you though the storms of life blow like never before?

Power Verses:
Jeremiah 17:7-8
But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.  They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water.  Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought.  Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.

Psalm 62:6
He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will never be shaken.


THE TOP TEN THINGS TO SAY IF YOU GET CAUGHT SLEEPING AT YOUR DESK:

10. "They told me at the blood bank that this might happen."
  9. "This is just a fifteen-minute power nap like they raved about in that time-management course      you sent me to."
 8. "Whew! Guess I left the top off the correction fluid.  You probably got here just in time!"
 7. "I wasn't sleeping! I was meditating on our mission statement and envisioning a new paradigm."
 6. "I was testing my keyboard for drool resistance."
 5. "I was doing a highly specific yoga exercise to relieve work-related stress.  Do you discriminate against people who practice yoga?"
 4. "Why did you interrupt me?  I had almost figured out a solution to our biggest problem."
 3. "The coffee machine is broken."
 2. "Someone must have put decaf in the wrong pot."
 1. "...In Jesus' name. Amen."