Bitter Roots Series

Bitterness is never God’s desire for us. Another passage that speaks about this is Hebrews 12:15. “See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.”

This text describes bitterness as a root. A root is underground and can’t be seen. But the fact that you can’t see roots doesn’t mean they don’t affect us. To the contrary, the fruit that’s born in our lives is directly related to our roots. The roots of an apple tree always produce apples. In the same way, if there’s a root of bitterness in our lives, it will always produce bitter fruit.

And the bitter fruit can affect all kinds of people. Hebrews 12:15 warns us that a bitter root can “cause trouble and defile many.” I know entire families that have been poisoned by the bitterness of one person in the family. I’ve seen this happen in churches, on sports teams and in work environments.

Listen carefully: Any wound not properly cared for will not heal properly. I’ve already mentioned that many of the roots of bitterness people deal with begin in childhood. Children don’t have the equipment to deal with these wounds properly, so there are many hurting children walking around in grown-up bodies with wounds that have been ignored or forgotten. But suppressing it, numbing it, or forgetting it is not healing. Those buried wounds still have power as they fester, hurt and cause distress. And the wounds can still be with us even after we give our lives to Christ.

Sometimes we’re told that we’re “under the blood,” which can be religious blather for “just stuff it.” Sometimes people quote scripture like “forgetting those things which are past” which may sound good. But Paul isn’t referring to denial in Philippians 3:13.

True forgetting can only come as a result of healing. Only healing nullifies the power of old hurts in our lives. Jesus does not teach pretense. And we can’t pretend to be healed when we’re not! Jesus came to give us an abundant life! He didn’t call us into a huge game of pretending; Jesus came to heal us and set us free!

So, let me suggest some practical steps we can all take that will move us toward genuine healing and getting rid of bitterness:

1. Unearth the sources of our bitterness.

In other words, we need to dig up the root that’s the source of our bitterness. Buried emotions and hurts have a life of their own. They become the roots for many of our adult reactions. We need to unearth these things by admitting them and naming them by name. Satan thrives on darkness. As long as we keep things hidden in the darkness we give Satan a foothold in our lives. But once we bring things into the light, the darkness has to flee.

Now, doing this may be painful. Last Sunday evening I said some hurtful things to Pam that revealed that I had allowed a root of bitterness to take hold in my life regarding something in our family. It was hard for me to admit it, but once I realized the bitterness was there I could begin taking steps to healing and wholeness in my life.