My all-time favorite fruit is the Filipino mango. While mango trees can live for 300 years, how do they stay standing when typhoon-force winds blow? There’s only one answer: their roots. The taproot of a mango tree can go down twenty feet deep into the soil, and, in addition, mangoes grow wide-spreading feeder roots that penetrate deeply.

What causes us to grow in Christ? Putting down roots and drawing up nourishment. Yet, what do you and I cut back on first when super-busy? Prayer and Bible reading! We could well learn from Evangelist Dwight L. Moody, who used to say, “I have so much to do today, I’ll have to pray twice as long!”

The apostle Paul wrote, “Let your roots grow down into [Christ] and draw up nourishment from him. See that you go on growing in the Lord” (Colossians 2:7 TLB).

Yes, applying God’s Word to our hearts causes deep roots, and deep roots cause growth. But how can we be sure we’re doing just that? Let me share with you a method that helped me.  I was going through a period when I was reading my Bible alright, but, honestly, I was not applying the message to my own life.  So, I made myself a stack of blank cards. When a verse spoke to my heart, I wrote it on a card. And then I turned the card over and wrote down what I knew God wanted me to do with that truth–holding myself accountable.

This method may not appeal to you. Maybe you’d rather journal. Or perhaps write prayer requests in a notebook. Or you like to share with a friend the truths that God makes real to your heart. However you choose, let the mango remind you to put your roots down deep into God’s marvelous love!

Deep roots make for strong plants.