Lord, Look Inside My HeartSample

Read Matthew 3:8.

The idea of a root that leads to a thought that leads to an action does not only apply to sinful roots, thoughts, and actions. These principles can be applied to righteous ones as well. A root of true repentance in the heart will produce new actions in our lives.

We want to allow the Lord to replace our root of sin with a root of righteousness. For example, if you have found pride to be your stumbling block, you would want to replace it with humility. So you would look up Scriptures referring to humility, the humble, and humbling yourself before God Most High. If you are filled with fear, you would look up Scriptures about faith and replace your root of fear with the root of faith.

Here is what our tree graphic might look like for righteousness (see today's sample image). Let’s say that we want to replace the sinful root of pride with the righteous root of humility. You would write “HUMILITY” in all capital letters in the roots of the tree. You might even jot down a Scripture reference next to this root to meditate on and pray through. A couple of the thoughts and attitudes that humility should produce are keeping your eyes on Christ and thinking of others above yourself. You would then write “Keeping eyes on Christ” and “Thinking of others” in the trunk or branches of the tree. A specific fruit that this might produce in your life could be blessing others in various ways. So you might write “Visiting a friend who is lonely, struggling, or going through a hard time” on one of the pieces of fruit.

Begin to replace your wrong thinking with biblical thinking. Try to imagine what the right behavior, right words, or right attitude would be. Fill in the root, trunk, branches, and fruit of your tree with these, and then proceed to practice them during the week. (Use the printed images from Day 1 or draw a simple tree. Use today's image as a sample to follow.)