Pulling Out The Root

We don’t have an attitude problem.

We don’t have a thinking problem.

We don’t have a tongue problem.

We don’t have a frustration problem.

We don’t have an anxiety problem.

We don’t have a spending problem.

We don’t have a problem forgiving.

None of these are problems, but rather symptoms.  There is ALWAYS a deeper “inner” root cause to the “outward” symptoms that manifest themselves in our lives.  Many times we try to clear up our symptoms in an attempt to bring resolution to our problems.  We may read self help books, take seminars or even seek counseling in order to help us eliminate our bad attitude, our wrong thinking, our poisonous tongue, our silent anger, our paralyzing fear, our over spending, or to help us learn how to forgive our offenders.   All of these methods are good in and of themselves, but no amount of will power or human strength will ever be able to help us conquer any of these symptoms.  Unless we get to the deeper “root” cause of these symptoms, we are simply putting band-aids on what really needs TRUE spiritual healing.

I’ve learned by living on a farm, that when we go out to weed the flower beds or the garden, we can’t just use the clippers and cut the weeds off at ground level.  The ONLY way to have victory in overcoming that weed is to dig deeper, beneath the ground’s surface and pull that whole root system completely out.  This is a wonderful analogy for how we need to treat the symptoms of sin in our life.  We MUST get to the deeper “root” cause and deal with it through confession to God.

In God’s Powerful Word we find the answers we need for how to go about our spiritual weeding. God tells us in      Proverbs 4:23, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”   EVERYTHING stems from the condition of our heart or our true inner man.  We can harbor in our heart the “root” sins of bitterness, anger, fear, greed, envy, lust, pride or guilt.  If we are allowing these sins to grow and fester in our heart, they WILL control all our thoughts, attitudes and actions.  Does this mean that we are hopeless, helpless victims to our sin?  No!  It’s our personal responsibility to daily clean out our heart from our sin.  This involves a spirit of humility before the Lord by seeing our sin as God sees it.  We then must confess it by asking God to forgive us.

I have a passion to share these truths with others so that you don’t have to suffer in your sin as I did for so many years. Heart cleaning was a rare occasion for me and I wasted precious time ONLY applying spiritual band-aids to symptoms. Never getting to the “root” of my sin and confessing it made me miserable person on the inside.  We all have weeds we need to take care of, but we can’t just deal with symptoms.  I hope and pray those reading this post will examine your process of spiritual weeding. May you see that the only way to live a life of true freedom and joy in Christ is to go deeper, pull out the sin by the root and keep your heart pure.