Bitter Roots

How would people describe you? Would they say that you're aggressive? Controlling? Self-righteous?

Do critical, unkind, and sarcastic remarks define your responses to life? Does unbidden resentment ooze out of your tone of voice? Do a string of conflicted relationships lie in your wake?

Bitterness. The Bible says that "out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks" (Matthew 12:24). It's not about our words and how we react to what comes our way. It's about unfinished business deep in our souls.

And the sad truth is "a bitter root yields bitter fruit." And untended, those bitter roots grow relentlessly and "defile many" (Hebrews 12:15). And if we were to be really honest and allow the Holy Spirit to shine His light deep into our souls, we'd have to admit that there are roots there that are ugly, twisted, deeply enmeshed. The Bible says that "the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked" (Jeremiah 17:9). These roots are what's true about us without the Spirit's active presence. They define who we are without Christ.

But God is not content to leave us where we are! He loves us too much and continues to beckon us to be more like Christ. And He helps us, by His Spirit, to continue to head in that direction.

Perhaps it's time to grapple with some long-neglected pain you've been hauling around. To finally confront some deep anguish of the soul that's preventing you from living a joy-filled, healthy life. To wrestle with some forgiveness issues that must be tended to. To begin to respond to this defect of the heart that many of us attempt, always unsuccessfully, to hide ...

Let's begin to cooperate with God in digging out those roots that are strangling our souls and marring our testimonies ~

Linda