Freedom from Hurts, Anger and Bitterness

Don't you just hate weeds? Have you ever tried doing gardening, and all you can produce is weeds? Well I guess it is a fact of life. They just come up without you trying.

The trouble with weeds is if you do not deal with them right away they become a problem. They are a problem anyway, but they become a bigger problem. The longer you leave a weed in, the bigger problem it becomes.

If you pull it out while it is still small you have a good chance of getting it out properly. But if you are lazy, like I am sometimes when it comes to gardening, you leave the weeds in just a little bit too long.

They grow a bit bigger and the roots go down a bit deeper. Eventually you come to the place where it becomes a lot more difficult to get them out.

Not All Solutions Work

When a tree has been growing for a long time and its root begins to go down into the ground, it comes to the place where eventually you cannot get the tree out.

You can cut it off and leave the stump there, but the roots are still in the ground. And while the roots are still in the ground the tree will grow back again. It is going to produce again and come back into action.

There is another solution that you can use. This is the one that I resorted to once when the weeds in the garden eventually became so high that I could not pull them out.

I decided that I would convert my weeds into lawn. So I took the lawnmower and mowed them down short. Well it made the ground look green. It looked like lawn – or so I thought.

But you know amongst those weeds were some that produce the big devil thorns. And what looked like beautiful lawn turned out to be not so beautiful.

The poor kids decided to go out and play in the garden and came running inside in pain and with thorns in their feet.

It was a false solution. My laziness caused a bit of trouble. I was supposed to have pulled the weeds out while I could, but I left them in and it caused a problem.

The Taproot of Sin

Why am I talking about weeds? I want to talk about a root of the flesh.

We looked in the first two sections at the subject of counseling and saw that there are basically three roots of the flesh. In this section I want to look at just one of those roots which is the main root of the flesh. It is the taproot.

When that taproot of the flesh goes down it becomes like a weed. Eventually it grows down deep and it becomes extremely difficult to get it out.

While that root remains there it continues to pour forth fruit. It continues to bear forth and grow, and to produce fruits of sin and the flesh in your life.

What am I speaking about? I am speaking about the root of bitterness. Hebrews 12:14 to 16 says,

Follow peace with all [men], and holiness, without which no man will see the Lord:
Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble [you], and by it many be defiled;
Lest there [be] any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.

This passage speaks about the roots of the flesh, and there are three roots that are mentioned there.

The very first one that is spoken of is the root of bitterness. It is the taproot; the main one. It is listed first because it is the main root that gives rise to everything else.

You see that the root of lust comes next. And then you see the root of temporal things and temporal values that comes second. They are the three roots of the flesh as we considered before.

People Deny a Problem

In this section I want to consider that taproot. It is very important that we look at it, because these three roots are the cause of every problem that we have in our lives and in our spiritual lives.

If the root of bitterness is the main root or the taproot, it is the main cause of problems we have in our lives.

You might say to me,

"I'm not bitter?"

If you say that then you are a liar. If you have sin in your life, then bitterness is there because it is the taproot of the flesh.

Most people are not aware of the fact that it is there or that it even exists. They also do not realize the danger that it is causing.

Very often as I am counseling with people and ministering to their needs, inevitably God begins by digging down and starting with the root of bitterness. So people come to me for counsel. They present their problem and say things like,

"I have a problem with my husband."

"I have a problem with my wife and we have financial difficulties."

Or, "I'm afraid and I have a problem with jealously."

It does not matter what the problem is. Inevitably, as I begin to counsel the person, I start to deal with bitterness.

You might say, "I have this problem in my life. What is the cause of it?"

"Well the cause of the problem is a root of bitterness."

"Huh? I don't see the connection."

I want to show you how important this root is, and how imperative it is for you to dig down and identify it. Because this root is likely to be the major cause of every problem that you have in your spiritual life.

Origin of Bitterness

Where does bitterness come from? I want you to see back in the Old Testament that bitterness is first mentioned way back in the book of Deuteronomy. It says this in Deuteronomy 29:18 to 20.

Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turns away this day from the LORD our God, to go [and] serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood;
And it come to pass, when he hears the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I will have peace, though I walk in the imagination of my heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:
The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book will lie upon him, and the LORD will blot out his name from under heaven.

A root of bitterness is a serious thing. You might say to me,

"Where is the root of bitterness spoken about?"

It spoke about a root that bears gall and wormwood. What are gall and wormwood? They are two sources of bitterness. One of those sources is external; the other one internal.

Wormwood – External Source

What is wormwood? I do not know exactly what wormwood is, but it is bitter. It is a certain kind of plant or tree that contains a very bitter substance. If you drop that wood into water the water becomes bitter. There are many other plants that are like that.

I remember that when my kids were very small my second eldest had a problem biting her nails. She was terrible. She bit her nails until there was nothing left and she was biting into the flesh already.

Nothing we did would stop her biting her nails, so we went to the pharmacy. They recommended a certain substance that was made from bitter aloes.

You painted this on the nails of the child. And the next time the child put her fingers into her mouth to bite her nails, she decided it was not such a good idea anymore.

It was horrible. It was vile. It was bitter as gall. Have you ever heard that expression? Well this was as bitter as aloes or wormwood. It was an external source that produced bitterness.

Bitterness is a way of the world and it can come from without. As you come under the influence of those that are around you, you will find that you do not have to look very far to find bitterness.

The world is full of strife, conflict, hatred and bitterness. And as we walk through this world we become contaminated and we pick it up.

We pick it up from the spirits of other people, from their attitudes and their influence, and we start to become like others. We become arrogant, we fight and we become bitter.

Gall – Internal Source

Bitterness also comes from gall. What is gall? It is a part of the body called the gall bladder.

I remember when I was a kid we used to have chickens. Sooner or later, when the chicken was fat enough, it was time to chop its head off and put it in the pot.

It was fun chopping its head off and watching it run without its head. But I learned one thing from my mother as I watched her clean the chicken. When she cut it open and took all the insides out, I saw a funny green looking thing.

I asked her what it was and she said,

"That is the gall bladder. We must make sure we don't rupture it or cut it, because if we cut it and that green stuff comes out, you can throw this chicken away. It will be bitter."

Gall is from the gall bladder. What is the gall bladder? It is part of the body. It is inside you.

This is a picture of internal bitterness, or bitterness that comes from the root of the flesh within. It spews out. It is like a swollen abscess, that when you cut it, it spurts out horrible pus and vile material.

It is not a nice description, but bitterness is not a nice thing. That is what bitterness is like when it is within.

The gall bladder is used for digestion. When there is something the stomach cannot digest, it pours out its bile which is a digestive fluid, to try and digest the bones and things that cannot be digested.

It sits inside and it digests and churns. That is a perfect picture of bitterness. It churns and churns, it digests and it burns inside of you. It is bitterness from within; bitterness in your heart.

Fruit of a Curse

Bitterness also bears a bitter fruit which brings a curse into your life. We saw it there in the Scripture. God said when a person has this root that bears gall and wormwood, they will inherit the curses and God will withdraw His blessing.

Do not dare stand and say, "Well I'm the blessed of the Lord," because you are under a curse, and God said He would wipe you out from under heaven.

You will destroy yourself. And not only will you destroy yourself, you will destroy all of those round about you, because bitterness defiles and begins to influence everybody that is round about.

Bitterness opens the door wide for the enemy. In James 3:16 it says these words.

For where envying and strife [exist], there [is] confusion and every evil activity.

There is confusion and every evil activity where strife abounds. Where there is strife, Satan has license. Where there is bitterness Satan will confuse. It is an open door for the enemy to walk in and to destroy.

Leads to Other Roots

When bitterness is there it leads to the other roots. When it is there we end up finding that sexual problems begin to arise in the life of the person.

So often when you help people identify these sexual problems, you find that it traces back to a bad relationship with their father or their mother, and bitterness lies at the root of that sexual problem.

The need for things begins to be connected with bitterness, and the root of temporal values starts to spring forth. We then have the full-blown roots of the flesh in the life of the person, giving forth sin and giving birth to every kind of problem that you can have in your life.

Recognizing Bitterness

How do you recognize bitterness? How do you identify it in a person?

One of the first things you will notice is that the person is always complaining. They are always dissatisfied, and they are always groaning, moaning and complaining about something or someone.

Nothing is right and nobody is right. The government is wrong, the church is wrong and the pastor is wrong. The school is wrong and work is wrong. Everything is wrong, so they complain, moan and groan. They are never happy.

Just have a closer look and you will start seeing some signs of the root of bitterness existing.

Bitterness never says anything positive. It is always negative, always sees the evil and always sees the bad. It is always suspicious. All of these things come as a result of that root of bitterness in the life of a person.

The clearest sign of a root of bitterness in somebody though is that the root of bitterness always needs something to spew out at. It always needs someone to be angry with.

You will soon see something in the life of a person who carries this root. They always have to have someone to be mad at, and they tend to be mad at only one person at a time.

If there is someone with a root of bitterness that is mad at you, there is only one way to get that anger diverted away from you. Get them to be mad at someone else.

It is amazing. They hate you so that they want to kill you, until they get mad at somebody else and then you are okay. You are their friend again because they are mad at someone else.

It is terrible to be married to somebody like that. I have been there and done that. It is not good. You have to get them mad at somebody else if they are mad at you.

It is the only way you get off the hook, because the root of bitterness will continue to spew. It always has to find an object on which to spew out at. 




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