Rooted Pre Season: Episode 1

The pre-season of Rooted is centered on God’s character. We begin with a foundational question that shapes everything else: how can we trust God if we don’t really know Him?

In this first episode, we turn to Psalm 102:25-28, the passage that anchors Day 1 of the devotional, God is Steadfast. This episode explores how Scripture reveals God’s character as unchanging and dependable, offering a basis for trust that isn’t rooted in feeling or experience.

Before asking God for answers, we slow down to ask who God has shown Himself to be. Because trust isn’t built on instinct or assumption. It’s built by knowing someone as they truly are.

Transcript

Emily 0:00

Welcome to Rooted with Emily Talento, where we explore who Jesus is by diving into context, culture, and covenant. We do this through a few different avenues. Over the next few weeks, we're gonna be unpacking a devotional that I wrote for 2026. It's a seven day devo, So there'll be seven episodes, each one unpacking a question that I'm sure all of us have asked at different points in our lives. And then the answer to the question is an attribute of God. This all came about in late 2025 when I was reflecting on what I needed to hear early on in my walk with God. and I was reminded of a conversation I had with a friend at Bible college. She was a couple years older than me. She was 21. I was 18. so I looked up to her a ton and I was really going through it. I was in a really challenging season and I'll never forget what she told me. It changed my life and it's still something I carry to this day. She asks me, how can you trust someone that you don't actually know? We know a lot about God. We could tell you a lot of things, but it's a totally different game to actually know him on a personal level, on an experiential level. Yeah, you never put all of your trust in a stranger. I mean, you shouldn't. That would be weird. You spend time with someone, you get to know them. You see them in different environments and their character and how they react and how they respond, and all the things. But we don't do that with God. He literally tells us who he is in his word, and we miss it. We're just not reading the Bible in a way where we're actually getting to know him. In most cases, it's really not hard. It's just viewing scripture through a different lens. The lens of getting to know our God, So that's all background on how this devotional came about. So let's dive into day one. The question is, can I actually trust God when life feels all over the place? Alternative question, can I actually trust God when I feel all over the place? If you're anything like me, everything's a rollercoaster. and the answer to that question is God is steadfast. It doesn't really matter what's happening. God is consistent. And so we're gonna look at Psalm 1 0 2, 25 through 28. of old, you laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain. They will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe and they will pass away. But you are the same and your years have no end. The children of your servants shall dwell, secure. Their offspring shall be established before you. I love the imagery here, especially in verse 26. We're obviously talking about how God laid the foundations of the earth and how the heavens are a work of his hand, how they're gonna pass away. They will wear out like a garment. Think about how many times a day we change our clothes, multiple. We don't even think about it. It takes like zero energy. It takes zero thought, and that's the casualness that God has in changing the foundation of the earth and the heavens. They're gonna wear out and he's going to just change 'em like a t-shirt. It's really not a big deal. Think about that. The heavens and the earth, like these are things that are so beyond us and God is so beyond them. They will pass away, but you or God are the same. I'm sure that this is relatable in every decade of life, but I think that there's something, especially, what's the word I want to use? UNC unstable about your twenties. Everything is changing at such a fast speed. it's like as soon as you get used to a new normal, it changes again. Relationships change. Jobs change. Living. Situations change, family dynamics change. People are getting married, people are having kids, people are going back to school, people are moving states. It's almost too much. It's hard to not compare. But in the midst of all of the change, what we can trust, what we can be secure in is that our God never changes. It doesn't matter the circumstances. He's consistent. He's steady. He is present. We can see this in this passage, they will perish, but you will remain. They will pass away, but you are the same. The reason I picked God is steadfast for day one, is because I think everything else. Can only be trusted if God is steadfast. If God's character changes, then does it really matter that he's good, he's good today? Is he good to be good tomorrow? I don't know. does it matter that God is wise? If tomorrow, maybe he won't be wise, No. God being steadfast gives us the security to have faith in every single one of the other attributes of him that we can stand on that as a strong firm foundation. in the coming days, we are going to continue to unpack his character. what I think makes this devotional different than most other DeVos out there is what I'm calling a rooted moment. It's a time where we look at the culture and context of the original text that the readers would've understood in the day that we in 2026 are likely missing. We miss so much. So today for our rooted moment, we're gonna talk about God's name, which is Yahweh. As Christians, we really have no problem saying it. We'll put it in songs. I've seen shirts with his name on it, But in the Hebrew context, which the Old Testament was written in, they wouldn't say God's name. I have it ingrained in my head from my Hebrew classes with my Jewish professors that anytime you read God's name, which is Yahweh. We would say Adonai, Adonai is like a title, meaning Lord, you could actually tell the difference in your Bible if you see in the Old Testament, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, that is pointing to Yahweh. Same thing with capital G, capital O, capital D. but if you see capital LORD, that's Adonai, and the reason why they don't say his name, the heart behind it is that How could we think as finite beings that we could even utter God's name? He is so beyond us. It is from such a place of reverence and respect. An acknowledgement for who God truly is. And I think sometimes we as Christians can learn from that. I think sometimes we get a little bit too comfortable with God as our friend and we forget who he actually is. We forget. He's the one who made the Earth's foundation. He is the one who created the heavens with his hands. in the Bible, names have meaning. God's name is essentially being. His name points to existence itself. I don't think we really have a framework in our limited minds to really comprehend what that means. 'cause it's so abstract. but I will say. It gives me a sense of peace. It gives me a sense of comfort. especially as we unpack future days of the attributes of God, his goodness, his mercy, his sovereignty, his wisdom that these are the attributes of the God that is existence itself. So not tomorrow, but Thursday. I'll be back to unpack day two together. Follow me on Instagram at Emily Talento and at Rooted with Emily Talento to see more. I'll see you next time.