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Bitterness is an insidious weed that makes its way into the garden of our hearts before we even know it.
In Hebrews 12:15 we read: “See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.”
This verse teaches us several things about bitterness: First, it grows. When you allow bitterness to take root in your heart, you can bet that it will grow and grow fast. It needs very little encouragement to grow; before you know it, those roots have dug down into your heart and ensconced themselves deeply in your life. When left unchecked, bitterness always grows.
Second, it causes trouble. Anytime you allow any little bitterness to take root in your heart, count on it causing you a great deal of trouble, as sure as night follows day. What kind of trouble? Physical troubles, for one. It causes great stress, raises your blood pressure, shortens your life, harms your health, changes your appearance. You may not think anyone knows about that bitter root growing in your heart, but believe me, they know. It shows on your face and in your body language, and you can hear it in the tone of your voice.
Bitterness causes emotional and mental trouble, too. A great many of the emotional and mental breakdowns we see today have their beginnings in bitterness that was never dealt with. When bitterness keeps growing, it starts to take over our minds and our thoughts, and a person can easily become obsessed and out of touch with reality because of bitterness.
Third, it defiles many. Defile means to spoil, corrupt, ruin, harm. Those bitter roots in your heart not only do you great damage, they cause a lot of other people in your life great harm. Do you have some relationship problems? Dig underneath and you may find some bitterness lying there, either on your part or the part of the other person.
Funny thing is, when we’re bitter against someone, it affects all of our relationships, not just the one we are bitter against. If you’ve got some bitter roots in your heart right now, they are spilling over to many of the people around you. As parents we can transfer that bitter spirit to our children; as managers and employees we can transfer it to our coworkers. It is a poison that affects everyone it touches.
Bitter roots are ugly things. We need to get rid of them.
