When I attended Living Waters Ministry, Denise, would tell us in class to weed the garden of our hearts every day, and to do it with our children every night before they went to sleep. The weeds in our garden might be anger, unforgiveness, or offenses we experienced from someone that day. Our children may have been hurt by a friend, or bullied in some way.
Scripture warns us in Ephesians 4:26 to not let the sun go down on our anger. “In your anger, do not sin: do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.” We may be angry, which is not a sin, but we must forgive the person for whatever happened that day so that it will not become sin to us. Our anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires in us, (James 1:20) and keeping anger gives place to the devil. Pull the anger weed!
What happens if we don’t do this? If an offense is not forgiven, it gets buried in our belly. These ‘belly roots’ as I call them, do not die there…oh no, they just lie there and turn into bitterness and wait for an opportunity to spring to life and cause problems. God warned us about this is in Hebrews 12:15:
“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.”
Wow, is God smart or what?! I see three important things God is saying in this scripture that we need to notice:
- we will fall short of the grace of God if we allow bitterness in
- it will cause trouble for us
- it will defile many others as well
A bitter root starts with unforgiveness, and can progress into resentment, retaliation, anger, hatred, violence, and finally, murder. Each is a deeper level of evil and is how Satan takes us into captivity and controls our lives. When we weed our gardens daily, we don’t give the enemy a chance to cause us trouble, or hurt others, and we will receive God’s grace.
The Boston Bombers are a good example of the truth in these scriptures. It’s unconscionable to understand how anyone could do what they did to others; but you see that this is the work of the devil at the highest level. There was a bitter root somewhere in them that progressed into hatred, violence and murder, and they chose to act on it. When I would see their faces on TV, I kept thinking about the ‘belly root’ of bitterness in them and how it had defiled so many.
Weeding the garden of your heart daily is important if you want to walk in peace, and stay out of trouble. It’s not always easy to forgive others, but it helps me to remember that Jesus forgave everyone that hurt Him, mocked Him, and killed Him. I can do this because He lives in me.
“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10
Solomon’s Porch
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