This 5-day devotional draws directly from Jason May's sermon “Rooted in Christ: Colossians 2” so you can keep engaging with the message all week. Read, reflect, and share it with your small group or friends.
You Were Made for More Than This
Monday — Understanding the Truth
Have you ever scrolled through your phone for twenty minutes and put it down feeling somehow emptier than when you picked it up?
Today's Scripture "In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." — Colossians 2:3
Reflection There's an ache in us that's hard to name. We feel it in the quiet moments — that sense that something is missing, that life should be fuller than this. And so we reach. For achievement, for connection, for the next thing that might finally make us feel whole.
But here's what the apostle Paul wants you to know: everything you're actually searching for is already found in one place. Not in a system, not in a self-improvement plan, not in being a better version of yourself. In Christ. All of it. Every treasure of wisdom, every answer to the deep questions, every experience of being truly known and loved — hidden in him.
This isn't a religious platitude. It's a diagnosis and a cure wrapped in one sentence. The restlessness you feel isn't a flaw. It's actually a signal. You were made for something — someone — your soul can't stop reaching toward, even when you don't know that's what you're doing.
The good news is you don't have to earn your way there. Paul isn't describing a reward for the spiritually advanced. He's describing what's already available to anyone who comes to Christ — not cleaned up, not with all the answers, just as you are.
Today's Step Sit with this question for a moment today: What have I been reaching for lately, hoping it would fill the ache? Just notice it — no guilt, just honesty.
A Closing Thought The ache is real, and so is the one who meets it. You are not searching alone.
Grace Did What Willpower Never Could
Tuesday — When It's Hard
Be honest — does it ever feel like faith is just one more thing you're supposed to be better at?
Today's Scripture "For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God's gift — not from works, so that no one can boast." — Ephesians 2:8–9
Reflection Most of us were raised in a world that runs on performance. You earn your grade, your paycheck, your reputation. So it's completely natural to carry that same logic into your spiritual life — if I just pray more, do more, get it together more, then maybe I'll feel right with God.
The trouble is, that approach quietly exhausts you. And worse, it doesn't actually work. You can't white-knuckle your way into wholeness. The Bible is clear: salvation isn't something you achieve. It's something you receive.
That can be genuinely hard to accept. Especially if you've been trying for a long time. Especially if you've failed in ways that feel disqualifying. The voice in your head that says you have to earn this is loud and persistent — and it sounds reasonable. But Paul calls it what it is: a deception.
Here's the truth that cuts through all of it: you are not loved because you are worthy. You are loved because God is good. That's not a lowering of the bar — it's the whole point. If you could earn your way to God, there would have been no reason for the cross.
The grace that saves you isn't waiting for you to deserve it. It was extended to you before you ever tried.
Today's Step What's one area where you've been quietly trying to earn God's approval? Try praying this simple, honest prayer: "God, I want more of you. I don't know how to stop striving. Change my heart."
A Closing Thought You don't clean yourself up to come to Christ — you come to Christ to get clean. That door is already open.
Small Habits, Deep Roots
Wednesday — Putting It Into Practice
What if the thing your soul needs most isn't another item on your to-do list, but the quiet removal of something already crowding it out?
Today's Scripture "So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in him, being rooted and built up in him, established in the faith just as you were taught, and overflowing with gratitude." — Colossians 2:6–7
Reflection Paul uses a beautiful image here: roots. Roots don't grow in a hurry. They grow slowly, steadily, quietly — and they're what keep a tree standing when the storm hits. Paul isn't calling you to a spiritual sprint. He's inviting you into a way of walking — steady, grounded, day after day.
The challenge for most of us isn't that we don't want this. It's that our lives are already packed. One more thing feels impossible. But here's a reframe worth sitting with: this isn't about adding something. It's often about removing something that's been crowding out the quiet.
A few real, small places to start: Put your phone down before you pick it up in the morning and spend five minutes in silence or scripture. Trade one episode or one scroll session this week for a short prayer — even an honest, stumbling one. Pay attention to what you're consuming online and ask whether it's shaping you toward fear and noise, or toward peace and truth.
None of this earns you anything. That's not the point. The point is that you cannot have a deep relationship with someone you never spend time with — and Jesus is not a hobby. He's the one who meets you when you actually show up.
Today's Step Choose one small thing to cut this week — not to be more spiritual, but to make a little room. Then use that space to simply say: "God, I'm here."
A Closing Thought Roots grow in the quiet. Give yourself a little of it today.
The Day She Stopped Trying to Earn It
Thursday — What This Looks Like in Real Life
Imagine someone who has been doing everything right — church every week, volunteering, checking every box — and still feeling completely empty inside.
Today's Scripture "Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." — Matthew 11:28
Reflection Picture a woman — we'll call her Mara — who built her entire faith around effort. She served faithfully, read her Bible dutifully, never missed a Sunday. From the outside, she looked like someone who had it all together. But inside, she was exhausted and quietly terrified that she still wasn't doing enough.
The shift came slowly. A friend asked her a simple question: "What would it feel like to just receive God's love instead of trying to deserve it?" Mara didn't have an answer. She'd never really considered it.
Over the following weeks, she started doing something different. Instead of beginning her mornings with a checklist, she began with a few minutes of stillness — not performing, not producing, just being present. She started bringing God her actual thoughts, not the polished ones. And something began to loosen in her.
She didn't become less committed. If anything, she became more genuinely so. But the motivation had changed. She wasn't serving to earn points. She was serving out of gratitude for what had already been given. The exhaustion didn't disappear overnight, but the fear underneath it began to.
That's what it looks like when the gospel moves from your head to your chest — from something you believe about God to something you actually live from.
Today's Step Ask yourself honestly: Am I following Jesus out of gratitude, or out of fear that I'm not enough? Let whatever answer comes up be the beginning of a real conversation with God.
A Closing Thought Rest isn't a reward for finishing. Jesus offers it as a starting point — come as you are, weary and all.
Rooted Enough to Weather What Comes
Friday — Carrying It Forward
The hard phone calls don't announce themselves. Neither do the seasons when faith feels thin. But there's something that holds when everything else shakes.
Today's Scripture "Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elements of the world, rather than Christ." — Colossians 2:8
Reflection Paul wrote this warning not to scare the church in Colossae, but to steady them. He knew that persuasive voices — ones that sound completely reasonable — have a way of slowly pulling us away from what is true. And he knew the only real protection was depth, not just activity.
This week, we've been sitting with one central truth: everything your soul is looking for is found in Christ. Not in performance, not in self-improvement, not in staying busy enough to avoid the ache. In him.
As you head into the weekend, that truth is either going to feel abstract — something you heard once this week — or it's going to be something you're actually rooted in. The difference isn't dramatic. It's made up of small, faithful choices. A few minutes of quiet. An honest prayer. A conversation with someone who takes their faith seriously. A decision to feed your soul something better than anxiety and noise.
You don't need to have it all figured out. You don't need to be further along than you are. What Paul is asking for — what Jesus is asking for — is simply that you keep walking. Rooted. Grateful. Present.
The world will keep offering you things that sound wise and leave you empty. You now know where the real treasure is.
Today's Step Carry this question into your weekend: What is one way I can stay rooted in Christ this week — not as a task, but as a gift I give myself?
A Closing Thought You were made for depth, not just busyness. Keep walking toward the one who never runs dry.