POTBOUND LIVING: Breaking out of old prisons

We suddenly moved house just over a month ago. After 9 months.on the market and 2 disappointing fall-through sales

Feeling disillusioned, I took it off the marketplace and was reconsidering if we were doing the right (or wrong) thing? Maybe we should stay in the house and let go of the plans and dreams we had been holding and praying about?

Within 4 days of taking it OFF the market our house sold and we had only 12 days to pack up everything and move a family of 7, a dog, and 7 hamsters!

'Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.'

2 Corinthians 5:17

I have thought often about this verse alongside the words REPOSITION, RESET and REALIGN.

I am struck with the contrast of the old and the new.

The old is comfortable and familiar (like our cozy house which we lived in for 15 years) yet we had long outgrown it. There is a limitation of staying in the old experience and the well known because although we adapt, it actually becomes a prison without us realising.

A plant in a pot can only grow as far as the edges and size of the pot. Once it reaches the barrier walls the growth becomes restricted and stops because roots cannot extend deeper or wider.

In fact the roots become a tight dense, tangled ball that circle around the inside of the container. They cannot absorb water or nutrients anymore and become rotten.

The plant is called 'Pot-Bound' or 'Root-Bound' which means it reached its limits of growth in the small container space. The roots fill and match the pot shape but NEW growth is hindered.

This is a significant picture for us.

Freeing up the roots is essential for the plants health. Roots have to be pulled apart and some actually must be removed in order for the plant to be transferred and for it to grow healthily again.

Some gardeners are afraid to disturb the root system but it is the only way for the plant to be repotted and restored.

As we move forward into 2022 let's invite God's reset and repotting process in our lives; in our work, in our families, in our relationships, homes, character, attitudes, speech, faith, motives, dreams.....

Let's allow and welcome the wisdom of His pruning and corrective realignment even as it disturbs us.

The process is uncomfortable and disorientating as it reveals many tangled things that were hidden beneath the soil under the surface; unhealthy roots that need HIS attention.

The reshaping of our stuck, restricted, and dysfunctional root system and the repositioning out of the old containment shape into the NEW wider spaces are with HIS loving commitment and goal to see us growing in full health and fruitfulness.

Once we are RESET we can receive His nourishment and watering afresh with healthy roots and the NEW fruit in us will surely follow.

@Chosen to bear fruit that remains.

(John 15)