Weeding and Root Canals

The last few weeks God’s been speaking to me about forgiveness. It seems fitting as we’ve started Lent and began the Easter season. The Christian faith is centralized on Jesus’ sacrifice. He died so we could be forgiven for all our sins. It’s ironic the thing He so sacrificially died for we struggle so much to do ourselves.

It’s become so easy to live in offense. I’ve been reading Charles Martin’s What if It’s True? A Storyteller’s Journey with Jesus and this struck me, “Unforgiveness is the anchor in us where hatred, bitterness, racism, envy, self-pity, jealousy, anger – it’s where they attach. It’s where they purchase. It’s like rotten meat in our spirits. Velcro of the soul. You can shake those surface things loose till you’re blue in the face, but until you remove the rancid stuff, you’re just swatting flies. At its most basic, forgiveness is an attitude of your heart toward another. It is an act of your will. Not emotion. It is often in direct opposition to your emotions.”

How often do we justify our actions and feelings of unforgiveness? “You don’t know what they said. What they did to me!” But forgiveness is only second to love in the Bible. It’s the reason Jesus came.

I was listening to a sermon by John Bevere (The Bait of Satan) and he said, “If I can’t forgive, I’ve forgotten what I’ve been forgiven for.” When Jesus was dying on the cross, He said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Luke 23:34 He was talking about each of us.

This summer, I decided I was going to do some rearranging of our landscaping. We have three shrubs in our side bed, and one wasn’t doing great, so I was going to pull it out. But I was shocked when I started digging. I dug deep all around it. When that didn’t work, I got the hatchet and tried chopping it out. At one point, I had all three kids pulling with me. The root system is extensive. It’s interwoven like a basket, and it’s even grown under other plants… It’s still there. It’s going to take some heavy-duty equipment to remove it.

And that’s the way it is for so many of us. Our roots are deep, and complicated. They started when we were just children or adolescents, and they’ve continued to grow and intertwine as we’ve gotten older. We do a little weeding here and there and things seem to get better for a while, but then things start to go back to the way they were. We notice our fruit (Galatians 5:22) starts to die, and it’s replaced with anger and bitterness.

I’m here to tell you from experience, digging those deep seeded roots out is messy work. There’s going to be dirt, sweat, probably some tears, and you may get some blisters, but something beautiful happens through the process. Eventually, you start to see new growth, new blooms, and then new fruit starts to grow.

As I’ve been praying, I feel like God’s saying He’s got more, but until we do some serious weeding and digging out of roots, He can’t fully release what He has for us. Because whether we know it or not, when we allow unforgiveness and offense to take seed in our hearts, we’re also opening a door for Satan to create a stronghold in our lives, and just like roots, he wraps that stronghold tighter and tighter until parts of us start to die.

I encourage you to take the time to sit with God this week and ask Him to show you what roots you need to dig out. Who do you need to forgive? What do you need to let go of?

The picture attached is an apology letter from my daughter. I often get these strategically placed for me to find… or hurled through a doorway as she runs in the other direction! As I was writing this, God brought them to mind.

Don’t put this in a box. It’s probably going to look different for each of us. For some it may be a phone call or coffee date, someone else may write a letter, and for others, it may simply be writing a list of names and releasing them!

Lastly, I feel there are people who need to forgive themselves. You don’t need to carry your shame and guilt anymore. That’s why Jesus died. You’re already forgiven. All you need to do is accept it and walk in the freedom He’s given you. Luke 4:8 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, and set the oppressed free.” Those are Jesus’ words. He’s got more for you friend.

“To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that prisoner was you.” ~Lewis B Smedes

“You will know that forgiveness has begun when you recall those who hurt you and feel the power to wish them well." ~Lewis B Smedes

Romans 11:16 “If the root is holy so are the branches.”

Proverbs 17:9 “Love prospers when a fault is forgiven.”

Mark 11:25 “and when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”

Matthew 18:22 “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times? I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”

Phil Wickham- Sunday is Coming

Casting Crowns- East to West