When it comes to growing things, I’m not exactly Seedling Sam the
Gardening Man. I grew up in the city, OK? But my farm girl-like wife and
some friends who have amazing green thumbs have taught me a lot about how
things grow and flourish. I was reminded of one of those lessons when I
read an article about growing blueberries. The writer of the article is a
recognized expert on blueberries. He explained how one of his most
important steps in making blueberry bushes fruitful is to chop off
branches. That sounds destructive, but it’s actually constructive. He
prunes away a lot of top brances so the interior branches are exposed to
the sunlight. The result? Big blueberries and lots of them!
I need to understand this pruning thing. It’s one of God’s most important
tools in growing you, and me – for that matter. In fact, some of the
difficulty and loss that you’re experiencing right now may actually be
your Heavenly Father cutting you back to help you grow. And the results
are going to be far greater than they every could have been if He left
what He has been taking away.
As Jesus was in His final hours before the cross, He prepared His
disciples for the battles and the assignments ahead of them with some
powerful teaching. And since they saw grapevines often, He chose that as
an analogy of their, and our, relationship with Him. In John 15,
beginning with verse 1, our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus
says: “I am the true vine, and My Father is the gardener. He cuts off
every branch in Me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear
fruit H prunes so that is will be even more fruitful.” In short, leaving
you less so you can do more.
Jesus went on to explain that all the things we do for Him have to flow
from our deep relationship with Him, “I am the vine; you are the branches.
If man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me
you can do nothing… If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask
whatever you wish and it will be given you.: If you loading up on Jesus
and getting ever closer to Him, it’s going to be really fruitful. You’re
going to make a greater and greater difference with the rest of your life
than you’ve ever made before. You’re going to be more and more
spiritually magnetic and having you around is going to be more and more
like having Jesus around.
But before the fruit, comes the pruning. I imagine if a vine could talk,
he’d say to the pruner, “You’re killing me, man!” And the gardener would
say, “I know it hurts, but I’m actually removing things you don’t really
need so you can explode with greater fruit.” That may be exactly what’s
happening in your life right now. It doesn’t feel good, but it is good.
God is lovingly removing things you think you need, but things that may be
holding you down, holding you back, or holding you captive. The cutbacks
are painful, but your Lord is taking out and subtracting so He can shine
on what’s left and do what He could have never done if you still had what
you’ve lost.
Pruning is actually God’s loving surgery to let His light go deeper into
your life than it has ever gone before. You may not enjoy the process.
You probably won’t enjoy the process, but you and everybody else is going
to love the results! And actually this is the best ‘growing’ season in
the church year: Lent. Oh, that we might understand this ‘cutting away’ of
our dead wood, that what might replace it goes way beyond any harvest
we’ve yet to experience or imagine.
See you in church,
Chuck
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