Enemies of the Heart: The Weeds of Bitterness

“Follow your heart” “Stay true to your heart” “What does your heart say?”

Terrible advice, all.

This concept of ‘heart’ is so pervasive, it finds its way into every corner of our culture. I think what we’re meaning by heart, is actually conscience, our inner voice. This pure, quiet thing that can tell us the truth about our deepest desires. It would never lie to us or bring us into ruin, so we should always listen to it. Right?

This is, in a sense, true. Our heart does carry our desires and whispers (and screams) them to us. But our heart’s desires rarely have anything to do with obedience to God, inward holiness, self-restraint, discipline, or any of the fruits of the spirit.

This follow-your-heart foolishness contaminates our Christian faith. We conflate God’s commands with our desires and amalgamates into something called the ‘heart’ which satisfies us in the present moment.

So ignore the title of this blog. Bitterness and your heart are not enemies. They are mates. Best mates. They’ve been cultivating their friendship since the the Fall in the Garden of Eden. Your heart is fertile ground for bitterness; a warm tilled earth for weeds to grow.

“For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” — Mark 7:21-23

The heart is not innately right, or wrong, and therefore is not to be followed at all cost. The heart is merely a fertile soil in which either the good or the bad can grow.

And it takes constant tending. It takes no effort to grow a weed but all manner of proactivity and fighting, and consistency and strategy and help, to eradicate them. We know, as weeds grow, they spread, they seed, and they multiply.

But the danger is not that only YOU will become filled with weeds. The great risk is that you will make weeds of everyone around you.

Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. 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. — Hebrews 12:12-15

The thought that my bitterness could defile many…I can’t sit with that. My bitterness could defile my wife and grow bitterness within her. I could teach my children to be bitter and cynical. I can hurt the hearts of tender people at work and make them become bitter. I could be a weed that makes weeds all in the throes of my own self-pity and anger. All because I refuse to tend the garden of my heart with aggressive and consistent intentionality.

Are you enjoying the taste of bitterness? It tastes good for a while. It’s empowering and releasing in a way. Until it chokes out your once-grace-filled spirit. Even a weed can look pretty for a time before it kills all else. Let us not become the weed in our family that corrupts others.

Let us not live by the heart but by the truth of the new spirit within us. Let us cultivate and tend to the fruits of the spirit that are planted in our heart by the Holy Spirit, by gratitude, praise, surrender and worship.