Bitterness

By Brian Sharpe

This is going to have to take some imagination. Close your eyes and think of a very nice house on a couple of acres with perfectly manicured lawns. It has matured trees and flower beds throughout the front yard and backyard, with a beautiful water feature in the backyard by the large deck with seating area. The house has a Northwest cabin feel, with lots of exposed wood and cedar. This house has the prefect layout and has the feel of a very comfortable escape. Can you picture that in your mind?

            Healthy plants have good root systems. The better the root system is, the more mature the plants are. For me, roots have always carried the idea of maturity, until a couple of weeks ago. Steve preached on the idea of a root of bitterness. This reminded me of the VeggieTales movie called The Fib from Outer Space. A little vegetable tells a lie and then has to keep telling a lie, which creates this monster that gets larger and larger with every lie that he tells. A bitter root goes deeper and deeper and spreads out of control if not taken care of.

            This brings us back to the beautiful house on acreage. Now imagine that same house but overgrown and with rooms that are overrun with junk. What could be a beautiful house is overrun by junk that doesn’t need to be there.  The yard that was once so pristine is overrun with weeds, vines, and blackberry bushes and is just unkept.

            When we allow bitterness to take root as believers, this transformed, beautifully forgiven body becomes overrun with sin, and it starts to eat us alive. If we are believers, this should lead us to repentance, but it often leads to further bitterness, because we are not willing to deal with offenses. This is toxic to the church and to the individual.

            I know in my life I need to constantly ask God to search me and let me know if there is bitterness in me (Psalm 139:23-24). The Spirit will convict us of sin (John 16:8); we need to listen and seek to forgive those we have bitterness against. We also need to go to those who have hurt us and seek to reconcile the relationship (Matthew 5:23-24). God desires the church to be united, and it is hard to be united when we have bitterness taking root in our lives (Philippians 2:1-2).

            This is my prayer: “Jesus, where there is bitterness taking root, please convict me. Help me have the courage to have the conversation that will lead to unity and peace in the family of God. Amen.”

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