Nightlight with RTTBROS
"Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled."
Hebrews 12:15 (KJV)
I heard a line recently that stopped me cold. I've been turning it over ever since. Here it is: if you don't heal what hurt you, you will bleed on people who didn't cut you.
Now, I've been around long enough to know that's not just a clever saying. That's a diagnosis. I've seen it play out over and over again in my years as a pastor and now as a chaplain sitting beside people in the hardest moments of their lives. A man who was shamed as a boy grows up and shames his own children. A woman who was abandoned learns to push people away before they can leave. A person who was controlled becomes the controller. We carry our wounds forward, and if we never deal with them, we discharge them onto the very people we love most.
There was a physician in nineteenth-century Vienna named Ignaz Semmelweis. He discovered that doctors were unknowingly killing their patients by going from the autopsy table directly to delivering babies, without washing their hands. They were transferring what they had touched in death into the most vulnerable, life-giving moments imaginable. The medical establishment resisted him fiercely. It took years before the world accepted what he was saying. But the principle was undeniable: you carry what you touch, and you pass it on.
That's exactly what unhealed pain does in a human soul. The writer of Hebrews calls it a root of bitterness. Roots are underground, hidden, and quiet, but they don't stay that way. They grow. They spread. And eventually, they spring up and defile many. Not just you, but the people around you who never did a thing to deserve it.
Now, I say this gently, because I'm not throwing stones here. I've done my share of bleeding on people. Too soon old and too late smart, as I always say. But here's the grace in all of this: God is in the healing business. He doesn't just forgive our sin, He mends what was broken in us. The same Jesus who said "thy sins be forgiven thee" also said "rise up and walk." He deals with the whole person.
The healing starts when we stop pretending the wound isn't there. Bring it to Him. Name it. Let Him into that locked room. Because the people in your life, your spouse, your children, your friends, they didn't cut you. They shouldn't have to bleed for it.
PRAYER
Lord, You know every wound I carry, the ones I talk about and the ones I've buried so deep I've almost forgotten them. I don't want to pass my pain onto the people I love. Heal what hurt me. Give me the courage to let You into those places. In Jesus' name, Amen.
#Faith #Healing #ChristianLiving #DailyDevotion #BiblicalWisdom #SpiritualGrowth #RTTBROS #Nightlight #BibleWisdomDaily #ChristianWisdom #PracticalBiblicalWisdom
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Have you ever hurt someone you love and couldn't quite explain why? There's a principle buried in the pages of Hebrews that cuts right to the heart of it: unhealed wounds don't just stay with us, they get passed on. In this episode of Nightlight, Gene Kissinger draws on a striking piece of medical history and a hard truth about the human soul to explore what the Bible calls a "root of bitterness," and why practical biblical wisdom says the bravest thing you can do is let God heal what hurt you before it bleeds onto someone else.
Scripture Reference
Hebrews 12:15 (KJV)
Reflection Questions
Is there a wound from your past, something done to you that you've never fully brought before God, that might be affecting the people around you today?
The writer of Hebrews says a root of bitterness can "defile many." Who in your life might be on the receiving end of pain you haven't healed?
What would it look like, practically and prayerfully, to take one step toward healing this week?
Call to Action
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