To Prune

John 15: 1-2 “I am the True Vine, and my Father is the Gardener. Every branch in Me that does not produce fruit He removes, and prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit.” ~CSB

Jesus is the ‘Vine’, the Source. Meaning we can do nothing fulfilling without Him. Without Him nothing lasts. To remain connected to Jesus means we must be productive in His name. Jesus says that, “...My Father is the Gardner…” This means God will take care of the removing and pruning. Let us not get this text confused and understand what is meant by ‘removing’ and ‘pruning’. 

We know that God loves us and wants us to get it right. He allows us opportunities for this. Those opportunities are found in our pain and struggles. Remember He has a plan. We are the ones that miss this plan because we mature in life and want to develop our own plans when one is already set in place for us. In the book of Jeremiah Chapter 29:11, God says, “For I know the plans I have for you”-This is the Lord’s declaration-”plans for your well being, not for disaster, to give you a future of hope…”

Going back to the text in the book of John, God doesn’t mean ‘disaster’ by removing you if you are not productive. Instead, in the trials you go through God removes what’s keeping you from being productive. Maybe you don’t love like you should because you are holding onto hate, anger, jealousy, or unforgiveness. These things must be removed before God can fill you with His powerful blessings.

And then there’s pruning. Let’s consider this a spiritual fine-tuning. We may be the Christians that go to church, attend Bible Study, preach or teach. But we also may be holding onto some things. Things in our hearts that we have tried to forget, things we don’t want to remember. But God wants to prune those suppressed feelings so that the devil won’t get the chance to use that against us one day. Also it will allow God to release His full power in you to bless others with those feelings of pain in your heart as He already has victory over all of them. 

So stay connected to Jesus, “...The True Vine…” and allow the Gardner to do His work in us through our trials and struggles so that we can be the ‘Fruit Providers’ we were created to be. May God bless and keep you in Jesus name.

Amen

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