It was only a little tree that needed to be cut down. We were clearing an area for a garden, and that little tree was right in the middle. It didn't take very long to cut it down. Then we started to dig out the stump, but underground we found the largest roots that I had ever seen for such a small tree! Those roots twisted around each other and everything else and were six inches around in places! That little tree was causing us big problems.

As we worked we found another source of our root problem. It was a stump of an old tree about five feet away that had been cut down. Its huge roots had grown all over our yard and that stump also had to be removed. After two days of digging, we finally managed to get enough of those roots dug out to plant our garden.

The Bible talks about roots that are troublesome: "Lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you" (Hebrews 12:15). Besides bitterness, there are roots of anger, jealously, greed, selfishness and even hatred. And even boys and girls, like young trees, can develop these roots. Have you ever been so angry with someone that you hit them or did something else mean? Do you remember being so jealous of a friend that you told a lie about the person? Have you ever wanted something so much that you took it even when you knew it belonged to somebody else? What about always wanting to be first and pushing others out of the way to get there? Oh my, all these are tangled roots of sin that will cause problems even in young lives. And if these roots of sin are allowed to continue, they don't go away -- they grow bigger and bigger and bigger. And as boys and girls grow into adults, those roots of sin just keep on growing.

Only Jesus can remove those little and big roots of sin in our hearts. He can give us a whole new heart and life, if we will trust in Him. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17). "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow" (Psalm 51:7).

Have you come to Jesus to be washed clean of your sins?

Copied with permission by Stephen Ross for WholesomeWords.org from Messages of God's Love published by Bible Truth Publishers.