Uproot Strongholds in Your Mind With These Simple Steps
In order to effectively “lay your axe” to the root of bitterness, you first need to understand how dangerous it is to you and to those around you.
Let’s take a look at what Hebrews 12:15 says about it: “Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.”
The word “root” is the Greek word pidzo, which refers to a root, such as the root of a tree. These are roots that have gone down deep and are now deeply embedded. Therefore, the word pidzo often denotes something that is established or firmly fixed.
If bitterness against a person becomes deeply embedded in your soul, your negative opinion of that person will become firmly fixed. As time passes, your thoughts of judgment against him or her will become more developed, rationalized, and established. That root of bitterness will become so firmly fixed inside of you that your angry, judgmental thoughts about the person will actually begin to make sense to you.
When a “root of bitterness” gets this deeply embedded in your mind and emotions, you’re no longer just dealing with a “root”; now you have a mental stronghold. That stronghold of bitterness will take a lofty position in your mind and emotions. From that position, it will then present a myriad of logical reasons why you shouldn’t have anything else to do with that person and why you should keep your distance from him or her.
Again, the word “bitterness” comes from the Greek word pikria. It refers to an inward attitude that is so sour and bitter, it produces a scowl on one’s face. In other words, you become so inwardly infected with bitterness that you are outwardly affected in your appearance and disposition.
This “bitterness” is acid to one’s soul, and eventually it begins to surface. When it does, the fruit it produces is unkind, caustic, scornful, sarcastic, cynical, mocking, contemptuous, and wounding. Bitterness has nothing good to say about the other person. In fact, it looks for negative things to say about that person to affect others’ opinions about him or her as well.
Tell-Tale Signs That Bitterness Is Growing in Your Life
When you find yourself constantly saying something derogatory about someone else, pay attention to what’s happening. What you’re saying about that person is a tell-tale sign that some bad seed is trying to take root in your heart.
Let’s go back to the picture painted by the words of Hebrews 12:15, which helps us recognize when bad seed is beginning to produce destructive fruit in our lives. It says, “…lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you….” The words “springing up” are from the Greek word phuoo, which depicts a tiny, tender plant that is just starting to sprout and grow. It isn’t a large plant yet; rather, it’s a small seedling that is just beginning to pierce through the soil. However, the very fact that it’s peeking through the soil means there is a seed hidden in the soil producing this new plant. The writer of Hebrews is telling us that it’s our responsibility to pay attention to our hearts, our attitudes, and our words so we can recognize and remove every bitter sprig before it becomes deeply rooted and springs up to blossom with deadly, poisonous fruit.
This is a very significant picture. It tells us that bitterness doesn’t overwhelm us all at once. Instead, it grows a little here and a little there until it finally becomes a huge, ugly growth that defiles our entire lives.
Bitterness usually starts peeking up out of the depths of our souls in the form of negative thoughts about another person or a sour, sharp, distrusting, cynical attitude toward someone. If the root is not quickly uprooted and removed, that bitterness will eventually become a full-blown tree that produces bitter, wounding, hurtful, and scornful fruit for everyone who eats of it.
As bad as this fruit is for others, it hurts no one more than it does you. Think for a moment about the woman I told you about earlier who lives in an emotional prison of unforgiveness. The people she despises have moved on with their lives, but she has remained paralyzed and dysfunctional behind those walls of offense and resentment.
Hebrews 12:15 shouts its warning: If you don’t stop these attitudes, they will eventually “trouble” you. That word “trouble” is from the Greek word enochleo, which means to trouble, harass, vex, annoy, or stalk. It refers to something inside that bothers and upsets you so much, you are constantly pestered by thoughts about it. In fact, your whole life is stalked by these hassling, tormenting thoughts. What you allowed to take root and fester inside your soul has now become a major nuisance to your peace that keeps you upset and emotionally torn up all the time.
This word makes sense when you think about the times you’ve been offended in your life. Isn’t it true that you’re usually more affected by the situation than the one who offended you? In fact, the offender often doesn’t even know he’s offended you! That person probably didn’t wake up that morning and think, I’m going to see how many people I can offend today! Most offenses are accidental, so the offender may not even know he offended you.
But when you’re the one who is offended, you can be hounded by what happened. Furthermore, the thought that can really stalk you is that the person who offended you seems so carefree and unaffected by the incident, as though he’s not even concerned about what he did to you! Meanwhile, you still go through life feeling hounded, harassed, and stalked by what that person said or did.
So take a moment to examine your heart:
Do you have a grudge against someone that just gnaws away at you all the time?
Every time you see that person, do you feel something sharp and ugly inside?
When you hear about that person being blessed, do you wonder how God could possibly do that when he or she did such an ugly thing to you?
Do negative thoughts like these pester and bother you all the time?
If you relate to the situation I just described, watch out! Bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness are now hounding and stalking you! These foul attitudes are tormenting you more than they are anyone else.
The very thought of the person who offended you troubles and harasses you. You’re annoyed every time you see that person. You even get upset if the Lord blesses him or uses him in a way to bless others. Yet that person is probably unaffected by your inward struggle. Instead, he is probably moving on in life while you wallow in unforgiveness! If this sounds familiar, then Hebrews 12:15 may be describing you when it says, “…lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you….”
Bitterness left unchecked will begin to take root and thrust its shoots deep inside your heart. Its sharp, caustic poison will continue to trouble, irritate, and vex you until you finally deal with the bitterness you’ve harbored in your heart. If you don’t get a grip on yourself right now and let the Holy Spirit help you permanently put these feelings aside, you’ll fulfill the next part of the verse as well that says, “…and many be defiled.”
Be Careful What You Dump on People Who Are Listening to You!
The word “defiled” is from the Greek word miaini and it means to spill, to spot, or to stain. It carries the idea of a permanent reminder of a past action or a past deed done. An example of this word is what would happen if you walked across someone’s white carpet carrying a glass of grape juice and then tripped and fell, spilling grape juice all over the carpet. You might scrub and scrub and scrub, but there would still be a stain there — a permanent reminder of what you did.
What a powerful picture this is for you and me! It tells us that when we begin to “run at the mouth” and say bad things about someone else, we have a devastating effect on the listeners’ attitudes. As our root of bitterness rages out of control, our derogatory words taint, spot, soil, and ruin the way our listeners perceive the person we’re talking about. Previously they may have held a high opinion of the person we’re talking about. But by the time we’re finished ranting and raving and expressing our bitterness (which may be dressed in a variety of disguises), we have completely soured their opinion of that person. They have been soiled by what we dumped on them.
An example would be a father who has always loved his church — until something happens in the church that offends him. Rather than release the offense and forgive, he goes home and fumes about what happened. The longer he fumes about it, the angrier he gets. As his anger grows, he starts venting and talking about what he thinks and feels. He is so upset with that church!
Before this moment, this man’s children loved their church. They thought their father loved it too. But day after day, they listen to him rage about how bad the pastor is or how badly he has been treated. This father doesn’t realize that his words are defiling his children.
Soon the children begin to feel what their father feels. They see what he sees and believe what he believes. It isn’t too long before they are carrying the same bitter feelings toward the church as their father — even though nothing wrong has ever been done to them!
The minds and hearts of these children have been tainted, stained, and spotted by a father who should have kept his mouth shut, gone to the Cross, and allowed the Spirit of God to liberate him from those bitter emotions. Instead, he dumped his bitterness on his family. Now he’s not the only one who has an attitude problem; he has imparted his bad attitude to his children as well. And if his children have a negative attitude toward the church when they grow up, much of the blame will be laid at that father’s feet for not keeping his mouth shut and being more mature.
Have you ever been guilty of relating to another person something negative that someone said or did to you? If you have, you defiled the person you talked to in the process, staining his thoughts with a corrupt opinion that will change how he sees and responds to the one who offended you. Every time he sees your offender, he’ll remember that report you gave. This is precisely how gossip-fueled scandals are created, many of which cause damage that is sometimes irrevocable. No one wins when bitterness is allowed to take root and then spring up to defile many.
If you internalize an offense and then refuse to deal with it, you trip up your forward progress in life. Your heart begins to harden, and you become less and less guarded with your words about the offender because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Sadly, every time you speak about your offense, releasing words steeped in bitterness and animosity, you stain the ears of your listeners. The offense, once limited to and contained in your heart alone, is released to spread and contaminate the hearts of others, leaving a sour reminder of the destruction unchecked bitterness can cause.
It’s just a fact that when a root of bitterness is not uprooted and removed by God’s Spirit, it doesn’t just adversely affect you — it affects a lot of other people as well. Ultimately, it has the power to affect every friend or relative in your life.
What a pity it is to dump all your negative garbage on your friends and loved ones, defiling them with a spiritual problem that may hound them for years. It would be far better for you to go to the Cross and deal with it as a mature person than to sow a lot of bad seed that you’ll only end up reaping later!
I can emphatically say this from personal experience. In the case of that one brother who committed so many wrongs against me and my ministry, I finally learned to keep my heart free of bitterness. Although it wasn’t an overnight process, a time came when I could say that I had truly let it all go and moved on. The alternative would have been disastrous not only to me, but also to my family and ministry. If the bitterness that polluted my heart had been left unchecked, its poisonous influence would have extended beyond me to infect and defile many others. I’m so thankful I found God’s way out of the trap of offense!
