Concepts like rootedness and foundation and questions like what you’re built on, are things that are seldom discussed in today’s day and age. I’d argue they should be thought about more than the current attention they receive. With these ideas, there’s a simple truth that serves as a warning sign to all of us. If there’s such a thing as a solid foundation or good soil, then there is also such a thing as an unsteady foundation or bad soil.

To pick up a gardening picture, what you allow in your garden is essential to the overall pedological properties of the garden. There are plenty of Biblical truths that center around soil as a picture of the human heart. The parable of the Sower and the Seed is probably the most well-known. Where the Sower is sharing the Gospel or the Good News to people like a Sower sows seeds in a field, and the types of soil represents the different heart conditions of those who receive the message. 

I want to zero in today on a specific inhibitor of a healthy heart – bitterness. Bitterness, in the Bible, is described this way: “Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many” (Hebrews 12:15 NLT). The Message translation tells the story this way, “Keep a sharp eye out for weeds of bitter discontent, a thistle or two gone to seed can ruin a whole garden in no time.” 

There is something invasive about bitterness when it’s allowed to continue in our hearts. So invasive, that it’s evil and destruction is firmly paralleled to the negative effects of what untended weeds produce in gardens – destruction. There are plenty of things that we need to be on the lookout for regarding the tending of our hearts, and bitterness is right near the top of the list.

Bitterness is a nasty thing. There have been times in my life where I have harbored bitterness towards people close to me and it is an infection that spreads with recklessness. It’s uncanny how quickly it can turn your heart against someone. The interesting thing, at least for me, is that bitterness is very clearly a choice. It’s something that we choose to feed in our minds and friends — it will destroy your heart if you don’t tend to it.

I remember helping a buddy with a gardening job a few years back. This family we were working for had let this one weed grow and kept putting off the annoyance of removing it until one day they looked out their back window and this weed had literally taken over the entire backyard. It spread with deep stocks and climbed their fences and attached to their trees, it was a disgusting site and a very real reminder of what untended things can do if left on their own. What started as one, tiny weed, the size of your thumb, ended up destroying an entire yard. Friends, this is what bitterness can do to a heart.

Let me bring some practicality to this. The thoughts you choose to cling to – they matter. Jesus in His Sermon on The Mount, found in Matthew Chapters five through eight, talks about anger this way, “You have heard it said, ‘You must not murder’… But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgement” (Matthew 5:21-22).

Have you ever been angry with someone and you have a moment of recognition that this anger isn’t helping you and that you should set it aside, but you respond with wanting to be angry just a little bit longer. It’s the response after the recognition of bitterness or anger that we need to fight against. When we choose to stay angry with that friend for just a little bit longer because it makes us feel better, this is watering the seeds of bitterness, anger, and resentment. This is a weed that destroys relationships.

I want to ask you, is there someone that comes to mind in this charge to combat bitterness? Have you been harboring negative thoughts towards someone in your circle? I want to encourage you to have courage and bring those suppressed feelings to the light. This may first need to be done via prayer with the Lord, followed by a talk with a friend for wisdom, but it will likely ultimately conclude (as the situation is appropriate, of course) with some sort of honest conversation with the person you’ve been harboring those feelings against. 

I get it, this is scary and never a fun conversation to begin, but it brings healing. The relationship may not be fully reconciled between you and your friend, but the weed of bitterness that’s been starving for life will be uprooted and discarded. Let’s not let these weeds live any longer in our hearts. The longer they are left, the more damage they will produce. This damage seemingly begins with a nominal effect, but it grows in compounding factors with time. So, friends, where in your hearts today do you need to weed the garden?