The Blessings From Pruning
Every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. John 15: 1-2
My grandmother was great at planting gardens and flowers. She took great pride in the way her garden looked. She would often, mostly in the afternoons and early morning hours, pull weeds and prune her flowers and vegetables. Ensuring the flowers and vegetables would not succumb to the vines that sometimes grew up with the plants. Her intentionality in her pruning process was almost surgical in ensuring she only pruned that which needed to be cut. I would watch her for hours cutting out vines, and cutting masterfully on the plant so that it would produce more vegetables, fruit, or flowers than expected. The plant had potential to produce without the pruning. When my grandmother pruned the plant, the plant released its’ potential at a greater capacity.
In John’s Gospel, Jesus began to give an analogy of him being the vine, we are the branches, and his father is the farmer. When the farmer comes along and inspects the vine, he cuts away branches that do not produce fruit, and prunes those that are producing fruit. The farmer prunes those that do produce fruit to release a greater possibility of their potential to produce. I cannot speak for anyone else, but I have never heard of anyone praying for God to prune them. Pruning requires a cutting so that we can produce to our fullest capabilities. That pruning requires a cutting away of bad relationships, habits, sins, weights, desires, or anything that causes us not to produce more fruit in our life. We never really know what or how much we are able to accomplish until we are exposed to odds that seem to not work in our favor. No one ever wants to experience tough times. Tough times always produce fruit in which you had no idea that you were able to achieve.
Are you being pruned today? Is God cutting somethings away from you? Remember that in God’s eternal wisdom, he is masterfully and surgically pruning you not to harm you, but to make you better. His intentionality in His pruning process is surgical in ensuring He only prunes that which needs to be cut. It is in His pruning that you will have a season of producing more than you have ever asked, thought, or imagined (Ephesians 3:20). Yes, you have the potential to produce without the pruning, but it is the pruning that releases your greatest capacity of potential.