Our Root Determines Our Fruit

Have you ever pulled a weed out of your garden and not only the part above the surface comes out, but the long root that hid beneath the soil as well?  I’m happy when this happens because once the root is removed, the weed will never return.

Consider your life as a beautiful garden, but due to the fallen world we live in, the god of this world tries to plant bad seeds in our soil. However, we have a choice of what vegetation we allow to grow.  Heb. 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.”  

When a bitter root is left to grow, it won’t produce good fruit in our lives.   Bitterness and jealously aren’t just innocent ” thoughts” we may have, but are actually like a weed, and if not uprooted early, they will grow and eventually “cause trouble and defile many”.  

As we tidy up the garden of our hearts and pull a few weeds out here and there, do we wonder why the weeds keep growing back?  Perhaps it is because what was seen above the surface was clipped off without removing the root of the problem and eventually it grew back. 

It is critical that we quickly uproot bad thoughts and attitudes in their infant stages before they get lodged in our hearts.  James 1:14-15 shows the progression of sin as an example: “but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.  Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.”   It is easier to pluck out a tiny weed than it is to cut down a tree that is a century old.

It is important that we not only get rid of the appearance of bad things in our lives and what people see on the surface but explore deep down in our hearts what we are rooted in because “our root determines our fruit.”