I love the summertime; the smell of the grass, the fresh rain that evaporates off the streets quickly under the warming sun that follows. But for every blessing, there's a corresponding thing I don't like: the pollen that aggravates sinuses, the flooding caused by weather patterns sometimes leading to tornadoes and periods of seemingly never-ending heat.

The writer of Hebrews compares the grace of God to trouble brought on by one's failure to confess sin and live holy. Many of us conclude that trouble is usually God's doing for it's common knowledge that His blessing to us is continual good health, wealth without trouble and straight smooth sailing on the calm waters of life. Now, if you believe that, you can probably be sold a bridge for use in the desert.

Read the New Testament from front to back and you should discover we're promised tribulation, heartache, disappointment and frustration in this life, not the good times. We need to realize that the majority of our problems are not God's curse on man but a result of our sinful action. Sure, reading Job's life, one might be tempted to believe God gives us trouble to prove Satan is wrong about us. But more times than not, we fail to resolve conflict and confess sin and thereby bring about the trouble we ascribe to God.

You might be asking what does internal bitterness has to do with external problems. A clue to the answer can be found in science. One law we learned as a child that for every action, there is and equal and opposite reaction. It's really no different in the spiritual realm. When we offend someone and they fail to resolve the matter with us and in their own heart, more times than not they plant a little seed of bitterness. In most churches, you can find the two sides of unresolved conflict on opposing sides of the aisle.

Time is like water to a seed of bitterness. Before long it's a full grown plant with long extending tough limbs that influence other parts of our life. The only way to rid our life of it is to pull it up by it's roots, cut cut it back as if we're grooming it. If not corrected (by God's grace), bitterness will have a negative influence on those who are not part of the problem. That's called taking up an offense. It happens when we don't like someone but don't even know why. We seldom remember what it is that influenced us, but we're too proud and self-absorbed to do anything about it.

If you need proof of what I'm saying, ask yourself who you don't particularly care for and then determine what they did to you to create this divisive relationship. If you can't think of a reason for your bad attitude toward them, then you've likely been nurturing a bitter plant in your life that someone else planted in you.

I don't want to leave you with a problem without a solution, so let's turn to God's grace for a moment and ask ourselves how it can help us avoid getting weeds in our life. Two things to do: 1) if there is anyone with whom you feel separated, go to them and ask if you've offended them in some way. If so ask for their forgiveness. If they can't think of anything, ask them to forgive you for your failure to extend God's love toward them.

But how can I avoid catching a weed from someone else's sin? Easy. If a disagreement involves something to which you are not involved as a part of the problem of solution, walk away and refuse to hear it. You can't be influenced by something you refuse to hear and regard. "Excuse me, but would you keep the weeds on your side of the garden please."

1 Developed from Read the Bible Thru ( Ez. 31:1-32:32 Hb. 12:14-29 Ps. 113:1-114:8 Pr. 27:18-20 )
2. Scripture comes from the Holy Bible, New International Version; (c)1978 by New York International Bible Society

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