Ah yes, weeds. Year after year of tending to your garden, you clean everything out in the late fall and watch it all freeze over in the winter.
Then spring rolls around, and just when you think you’ve “out-weeded” your garden, there they are again.
Weeds are pesky. They require some very serious effort. I’ve had the pleasure and the blessing of owning a garden, small, but to my heart’s content. I acquired it after we bought our first house. We’ve got some perennials; big towering hydrangeas, and there is some space to put in some annuals which I can go totally overboard with….
But when it’s all bloomed, and has the attention of my neighbors, there is that constant need to go in and pull out the weeds. They just show up out of nowhere and grow right along with the other plants. ‘How do they get there?’ I think. ‘I pulled them out last year!’ Or so I thought. See, if you don’t get weeds out from the root, it’s like you did a cosmetic makeover. You took it out at the surface and patched up the hole. But the root is still in the ground, hard at work.
And that goes the same for the the bitterness root. The Bible talks about the bitterness root in Hebrews 12:15 ESV.
See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled.
We need to obtain God’s grace for salvation to be able to eliminate bitterness at the root so that those around us are not spoiled by it. NEWS FLASH: The root of bitterness in our lives hurts others! If we don’t take out the root, it continues to germinate deep down inside and grows right in there with love, joy, kindness, and all the fruits of the Spirit, eventually overtaking them completely.
As I think back through the years of becoming a wife and a mom, I’ve had to deal with lots of weeds in my spiritual garden. Some I’ve gotten rid of for good, but others, like bitterness, are pesky and persistent. I’ve let bitterness take up space in my life due to holding onto grudges, unresolved conflict and things that I cannot even control. It’s created some collateral damage in my family, but it’s done me the most harm. It’s something that I’ve needed to continuously let God prune out of my life as soon as I see it springing up. It’s been painful. I’ve had to humble myself. I’ve had to make amends. I’ve had to start anew. I’ve had to let go.
But God’s grace is immeasurable. It says in Lamentations 3:22-23 ESV that
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
(emphasis mine)
God’s grace is something that I can always count on. What is taking up space in your life that needs to come out? God is waiting for you to let Him in and start pruning today. <3
