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\u201cSo then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord,\xa0continue to live your lives in him,\xa0rooted\xa0and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught,\xa0and overflowing with thankfulness.\u201d (Colossians 2:6-7)

Jesus is the basis of our faith.\xa0 He\u2019s the reason for our service, our prayers, our confession, our worship.\xa0 He is the reason that we continue to live our lives in Him and walk in love.\xa0 It is Christ that is being revealed in us as we live our everyday lives.\xa0 That is God\u2019s intention for us.

In these verses Paul gives us two images.\xa0 The first image is that of being rooted.\xa0 This word implies something that has already happened (we received Jesus as Lord) and continues on with us in the present (He is still the Lord of our life).\xa0 This \u2018rooting in faith\u2019 is our union with Christ.\xa0 A union where it is not there for a season and then dies, such as would happen to an annual flower, but rather, a perennial faith that is rooted in the soil of enduring faith in and through Christ in the midst of every storm and every hardship that may come our way.\xa0 We, as a perennial plant remain rooted in Christ.\xa0 He is the foundation of our faith.

The second image we see is that of being built up.\xa0 Such that Christ is the fabric or the building blocks that holds the entire building, ourselves, in place.\xa0 Without Him, the building could not stand.\xa0 It would simply collapse.\xa0 And so Christ is both the life of the plant and the binding force of the building.\xa0 We are to continue to live our lives in Him, rooted and built up in Him.

But Paul doesn\u2019t finish his sentence there.\xa0 He continues on telling the Colossians to remain strengthened in the faith that they were taught. \xa0He wants them to increase in the knowledge of their faith and in the experience of its power in their lives.\xa0 Paul wants the Colossians to have and excellent grasp of their faith and to put that faith into practice.\xa0 Not only for themselves but as a part of the very fabric of their lives.\xa0 Rooted, built up and strengthened in the faith.

Paul then adds some crucial words, \u201coverflowing with thankfulness.\u201d\xa0 I love this!\xa0 We are to not only be thankful, but to be overflowing with thankfulness!\xa0 This makes me think of a picture of a cup overflowing over its rim, literally brimming over with thankfulness.\xa0 True thankfulness is given in humility and directs our heart towards God, who directs our growth and our steps.\xa0 This in turn, compels us to turn our praise and our thanks towards God.\xa0 Overflowing thankfulness for the abundance of life that he has given to us in Christ.