As imperfect as my life may seem I seriously wouldn’t trade it for your flawless one. See, I’ve learned to be content, smile through it, trust God all the way and enjoy the process because My Heavenly Father is pruning me before He Bloom me. You get it? He is cutting 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. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. See, I have that “HOPE that anchors my soul” Hebrews16:19 He is not finish with me yet….
If you are a Christian, you are going to be pruned. Count on it. None of us are immune to it. You may not be in the pruning process right now…you may be in full bloom, enjoying a relatively easy life. Praise God! Enjoy it! But don’t get too comfortable…the scissors are going to come your way again! Many of you are going through pruning right now.
In John 15, Jesus says the following:
1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
2 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.
4 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.
6 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.
7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.
8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
So, in these verses, God our Father is the gardener. Jesus is the Vine. And we are the branches.If we don’t bear fruit, this says we will be cut off from the vine and burned. If we do bear fruit, we will be pruned so that we will be even more fruitful!
Now most of you know that trees need pruning in order to grow properly and bear fruit. Pruning involves cutting off the dead branches and cutting back the living branches, both to shape the tree or vine and to stimulate growth.
The truth of it is…most of us find ourselves in one of three places right now. Either we are:
1. being pruned
2. healing after being pruned, or
3. we are in full bloom. (But don’t get too excited if you are in full bloom, because you are about to be pruned again.)
Chastening and correction are proof that we have a loving father who wants the best for us. We actually have more to fear if we were not being chastened, for that would indicate that God did not care. Don’t despise chastening. It is so good for us! It is spiritual castor oil…it tastes bad going down, but it makes you stronger. If you’re not pruned, you’re not loved!
Jesus promised us that in this world, we would have trouble! The trouble makes us draw closer to him. When things are going great, we get so self-sufficient and prideful sometimes. My days of closest communion with the Lord have been the days when I was suffering the most! Sometimes I almost long for those days again so that I can experience that close communion with the Lord when I was so broken and desperate for Him.
Psalm 34 says, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” Do you see that? The Lord is close to the one who is being pruned. Why do we want to assume that He is far away when we are experiencing trouble? It’s just the opposite! Oh, that we would have eyes to see the bigger picture and believe He’s in the middle of it!
Now I realize that pruning is unpleasant. Have you ever looked at a pruned tree or a pruned plant? It’s kind of ugly, isn’t it? When you’re going through pruning, you’re not saying, “Oh how wonderful, I look ugly now, but I will be more beautiful one day because of it.” No, we want to whine and throw pity parties and get mad at the gardener or question the gardener’s love for us. But these reactions will only stunt our growth. The quicker we can thank God for the pruning, the quicker the discomfort will fade. The quicker we learn the lesson God is trying to teach us, the quicker He can lay down His pruning shears!
No matter where you are in life, remember that Our God is bigger than your circumstances and He is in control of all that is going on around us. And His LOVE never fails.
Happy pruning or happy blooming!
Flore❤️
