A Terrible Disease
By Christy Lowman
Burke County
The blight is a terrible bacterial or fungal disease that sucks the life right out of plants, bushes, and trees. Once a plant gets the blight, it is almost impossible to get rid of. This disease will spread and destroy a plant’s leaves, stems, and eventually the entire plant.
We have found it on lilac, azalea bushes, apple trees, and other trees. We were not able to get rid of it, and it resulted in the deaths of several plants.
Recently a friend, Diane Cunio, told me they have been successful saving their bushes and trees by doing the following:
1. For bushes, cut them down to the nubs.
2. For fruit trees, cut half of a foot past where the blight is.
3. Burn the trimmings.
4. Clean your tools with bleach so the blight doesn’t spread to your other plants.
God then showed me how the “blight” can sneak into our own personal life. It can come disguised as sin, unforgiveness, bitterness, hatred, worriedness. Anything that can destroy us and our relationship with God. These things left unattended will eventually destroy our spiritual and physical health. Sometimes it causes us to become numb, not having any feelings or cares, or we might feel dead inside. It can even cause stomach ulcers, cancer, anxiety, headaches, or other conditions. In the worst scenario, it could even lead to death.
But the good news is all we have to do is ask God to help us with whatever ails us. We can not stop our sin, unforgiveness, worriedness, etc. without God’s help. Once we surrender ourselves over completely to God, He can start the cleansing and healing process.
Like a bush or tree with the blight, He will prune us, sometimes to the nub, getting rid of what is causing our disease or pain. After He prunes us, we are made new and will rise back out of the dirt, a new bush with no “blight” haunting us. That is how powerful and loving our God is! He can and will take away all hurt and give us a fresh start! After He does this, we can grow, flower, and bear fruit once again for the Kingdom of God. “He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear so they will produce even more.”John15:2 NLT
Dear Lord, help us surrender over our sin, hurt, and whatever else that ails us to You so that You can make us better and we can bring others to the Kingdom of God. Amen.
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Christy Lowman is a Christian author and illustrator that lives in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains with her husband and two children. She enjoys writing and illustrating books for all ages. Some of her short stories are published with Guideposts and HCI. Christy gives all the glory to God in everything she does. A portion of every book sold from the Small Bible Character Series will be donated to battle human trafficking. If you enjoy her books, “like’ her author page on Facebook and let her know! You can buy her books at //www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AChristy+Lowman&s=relevancerank&text=Christy+Lowman&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1. You can reach her at //www.facebook.com/authorChristyLowman/
or christyssoaps@yahoo.com
You can read more Christian news from Christy here.
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