Rooted in Grace: Finding Stability in a Busy World
Edited directly from the sermon transcript of Matthew Miller’s message at Highland Hills Church of Christ on March 8, 2026. Adapted for length and readability while preserving his voice and message.
We live in a culture obsessed with results. If the chart at work trends upward, we get smiles and high fives. If it trends downward, we get furrowed brows. We track steps, productivity, and followers. Those markers can even determine how we feel about ourselves.
There is nothing wrong with measuring things. But amid the metrics, we can forget to ask what kind of person is being formed.
I have had times when I wanted to grow spiritually and made myself a whole checklist. I’ll pray every day. I’ll read my Bible every day. For four days, I’m doing great. By day five, I feel worn out. I become inconsistent and frustrated. Why does someone else seem to be growing while I feel as if I’m walking in circles?
The early church in Acts displayed courage under pressure, shared life around Jesus, sacrificial generosity, and bold witness. That kind of church is the fruit of something deeper. Psalm 1 helps us understand its roots.
The psalm begins with the person who does not walk in ungodly counsel, stand in the path of sinners, or sit among the scornful. Instead, this person delights in the Lord’s instruction and meditates on it day and night. The picture is a tree planted beside water, bearing fruit in season, with leaves that do not wither. The ungodly are compared with chaff carried away by the wind.
What produces lasting fruit in a believer’s life? God produces it as he forms our roots through the practices of everyday life.
The Psalms give us the breadth of human experience before God: lament, celebration, worship, fear, and the cry for rescue. Sometimes I think of reality as a pie. For me, it would be pecan pie. It has a bottom that sometimes falls apart and a top that is completely nutty, but something good and satisfying in the middle. That is how life often feels.
The Psalms speak into that whole experience. Psalm 1 shows us what life rooted in God looks like.
Notice the progression in its opening verse: walking, standing, sitting. First we are exposed to ideas opposed to God. Then we stop and begin to agree with them. Finally, we settle down there and make them part of our identity.
That kind of formation happens slowly. People don’t generally wake up one morning and decide to live an ungodly life. They have been moving in that direction for a long time. Like water wearing away a riverbank, small changes eventually create a deep channel.
Discipleship involves what we refuse as well as what we pursue. But the psalm does more than tell us to avoid something. It gives us a positive picture: delight in the Lord and in what he has said.
It is possible to display outward, robotic obedience without the heart that gives obedience life. That becomes shallow and can lead to bitterness and self-righteousness. The psalm calls us toward affection for God.
Desire is a gift. Like every gift, it can be distorted. But when our desire is directed toward the one for whom we were created, it becomes a powerful and beautiful part of life. We see God’s beauty in his word and learn to delight in him.
That delight is coupled with meditation. We have some confused ideas about that word, but here it means continually taking in what God has said. A cow gives us a surprisingly useful picture. It ruminates. It keeps working over what it has eaten. Meditation is returning to God’s word again and again until something that was external begins to become part of us.
We take it in and keep digesting it. As we meditate, our desire for God grows. What we consistently behold shapes who we become.
Then comes the picture of the tree. Notice what it does: it remains planted in a purposeful place, close to the water that nourishes it. The stream keeps flowing, and the roots keep drawing from it.
The tree bears fruit in its season. That timing matters. Ecclesiastes 3 reminds us that life has seasons: planting and gathering, weeping and laughing, mourning and dancing, silence and speech. We do not live every day in the same season.
When we are rooted, we can endure the seasons in which we see less fruit. Psalm 1 says the leaves do not wither. There is resilience. As we regularly seek God and delight in him, we draw on his life through the dry places and can grow into another fruitful season.
The contrast is chaff, the waste sifted from grain. It has no roots or stability. When grain is tossed into the air, the wind carries the chaff away. The psalm gives us a picture of life controlled by external forces, reacting to whatever happens from day to day.
Deep formation in God gives us resilience. James uses a similar picture when he speaks of asking God for wisdom. He encourages us to ask in faith rather than being tossed about like a wave driven by the wind. God gives wisdom to help us endure and grow.
If we want to be a church that lives like the church in Acts, or people growing in Christ, we need to live intentionally rooted in him. Daily attention to God produces lasting transformation.
Where do we start? First, look at what keeps us busy. At one point I banned the B-word from my vocabulary: busy. Every time someone asked how I was doing, that was my answer. I got tired of saying it and thinking it. The word left; the busyness continued.
The question is what we are busy with. Jesus had an active ministry, yet he paused to pray and spend time with his Father. He kept things in perspective.
Perhaps the word we need to confront is “hurry.” Our small group once studied The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. On the first day of the study, I was running late, rushing to get there, and then had to introduce that very subject. I began with a confession. I needed the study too.
Where can we slow down? Where can we give attention to what matters? Hurry often means we have filled our lives with too many things and are darting about trying to keep all the balloons in the air.
Second, choose rootedness over spiritual hurry. Decide where you will plant yourself. Some streams nourish us; others are polluted.
Third, begin a daily rhythm. Call it a rooting practice, or call it whatever you like. Just begin. Perhaps it is ten minutes at the start of the day, or a pause at the end. For me, the twenty-minute drive to work and back has been helpful. Most days I leave it quiet and use that time to listen, pray, and seek God. It doesn’t add another obligation to my day. It requires intention.
Fourth, replace a distracting voice. How much time do we spend scrolling? Those feeds are designed to keep us using them. There can be good things mixed in, but much of what we encounter does little to nourish our spiritual lives. What if we replaced some of that time with a psalm, or used a drive to meditate on a verse?
We need to make room because God is our priority. We place ourselves where we can be nourished, delight in him, and grow in that delight.
Ask yourself: Am I rooted, or am I being carried along like chaff? Have I drawn near to God, or am I beginning to settle into an identity that moves away from him?
The psalm ends soberly. The Lord knows the way of the righteous, while the ungodly way perishes. The fruits of a life turned away from him cannot give us a lasting future.
God created you and knows you better than you know yourself. He wants to lead you into life that is truly life. Even if you feel stalled, he offers his hand and invites you to take the next step. Plant yourself close to him. Listen to the love of your heavenly Father and allow him to nourish you.
