Unforgiveness and bitterness can wither your soul. You can become withered and drawn back because you’re angry at what someone has done, angry at some bad treatment – mistreatment by a father, mistreatment by a mother, mistreatment by some other person. When people are angry and hurt and hold unforgiveness and bitterness, it causes the heart to wither. When people begin to hate someone, begin to harbour resentment and hatred, it withers the soul. We’re not made to carry these things in our heart. Our life becomes withered.
You don’t see it in the beginning because it’s concealed but over a period of time, the effect of bitterness, unforgiveness, hatred. It affects the person, causes them to draw back.
Another thing withers the soul is fear. Fear causes people to draw back. When we become afraid, when fear grips our life, we draw back from facing things. We close up on the inside. Like the man with the withered hand, we draw back within ourselves. Remember we saw the story of Elijah when he came under pressure and became afraid, shrivelled up and drew back and hid in the cave. Many people do that. When intimidating circumstances come, if we don’t respond with boldness and faith, we become intimidated and draw back and our ministry becomes withered.
In 2 Timothy 1:6, Paul wrote to Timothy. Timothy’s ministry had become withered. He had a powerful gift in his life. He had a powerful gift of the Spirit that could change lives, that could bring the life of God. But it was dormant, it was withered, it was not operating because of fear. He was intimidated by older people, and fear gripped his heart. Instead of rising boldly, he drew back, began to play it safe. He looked the same, but inside, his ministry was withering. It was drawing back because of fear.
Fear and intimidation will cause you to draw back from bold action – boldly following the Lord, bolding serving the Lord. Disappointment can cause you to wither. Disappointment can cause you to draw back. Listen, this is one of the things I know – that once you start drawing back, you feel ashamed of your condition. You know you’re not doing your best. You know that you’re defeated.
Maybe there’s sexual sin. Something’s going on in your life. You can’t seem to break free of it. The condemnation of it causes you to lose your authority. You begin to draw back in your ministry. There are so many different ways that our ministry can become withered, or our life can become withered.
I met many withered people desperately needing the touch of God – people from broken homes, people who’ve been abused, people who’ve suffered in relationships, whose soul has shattered, and they’ve literally draw back from life, grieving and hurt and lonely; sometimes suicidal, sometimes depressed.
In this situation in this particular meeting, Jesus saw the man and He did something interesting. He identified the man but the last thing the man would have wanted is to be pointed out. Jesus said – “Stand up.” And the man stood up. Now, everyone is looking at him. Tries to conceal his hand. Everyone can see him. The Bible says – Jesus looked around and He became very angry, became stirred inside. Isn’t it interesting, Jesus became angry?
This is the thing that angered Him. It says – He was grieving inside. When we feel grief, it’s because something has been robbed or taken away. We feel something has been lost, and you can feel grief over the loss of a person, grief over the loss of an animal, grief over the loss of a job. But Jesus grieved over something else.