A season of pruning

If you've ever experienced a season of pruning, you know how painful it can be.  I certainly do not beg God to grab a pruners and snip here and there, yet somehow He knows when I'm due for some reshaping.  Now just happens to be one of those times.

As I was reflecting on this, I had to wonder what pruning actually means.  (I'm no farm or orchard girl!)  According to the dictionary, to prune means to cut branches away from a plant to encourage fuller growth.  Whoa!  That means when God is pruning His children, He removes things from our lives that are depriving us from growing to our potential.  That's the way that I see it anyway.  What a thought.  So even though a time of pruning is painful, it is for the best in our lives, regardless of whether we see it that way at the moment.

Onto the next definition of pruning: to reduce something by removing whatever is unnecessary or unwanted.  Keep in mind that this is in the mind of the 'Farmer.'  I tend to tightly clasp certain areas of my life with no intentions of ever letting go, even if I know that I should. (Isn't that human nature?)  But when Christ prunes us, He takes out whatever is unnecessary or unwanted in His mind.  Those areas in my life that I want, He snips.  Those areas that I refuse to let go of, He trims.

The passage about the vine and the branches from John 15 certainly ties right in with this.  Verses 1-8 and 16 (NIV) say:

"'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 he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.  You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.  Remain in me, and I will remain in you.  No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.  Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
"'I am the vine; you are the branches.  If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.  If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.  If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.  This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples...'"
"'You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit-fruit that will last...'"

Our heavenly Father called us to be fruit-bearers, followers of Him.  He hand-picked (pardon the pun!) each of us by name and desires that we would follow in His footsteps, planting seeds wherever we go and offering the fruits of ourselves in return.  Even if the pruning process is agonizing right now, it WILL be worth it in the end.

Be blessed!