Pruned For Greater Fruitfulness

Pruned For Greater Fruitfulness

I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. You have already been pruned for greater fruitfulness by the message I have given you. –John 15:1-3

One Saturday morning all our neighbors met in our front yard to plant a tree in honor of Hope. Their desire was that its blossoms would serve as a reminder of her life. Each spring the blossoms on Hope’s tree come and go quickly (which somehow seems appropriate). But the tree has been looking a little sickly of late (which also seems appropriate). One large branch is producing no new growth and is going to have to be removed. Other healthy parts of the tree need to be pruned so that all the branches will have more blossoms.

Just as our “Hope Tree” needs the careful cutting of an expert gardener if we want to enjoy its blooms, so our lives need the attention of our Father, the gardener, if we want to be fruitful. God’s strategy for coaxing a greater harvest out of his branches is not the one you and I would prefer. His plan is to prune, which means to thin, reduce, and cut away. But he is an expert pruner. He never pinches or cuts too soon lest he damage a tender branch. He knows exactly which of our parts need to be pruned and exactly how much.

Have you asked God to make you more like him and to use you in a significant way? His pruning is his answer to your prayers. In pruning, God cuts away commitments that would sap you of time and energy for him. He severs relationships that are not nourishing your growth. He clips your wings so in the stillness you can hear his voice. His careful pruning clears away the things that keep you from becoming all he means for you to be.

Pruning is cutting, and cutting hurts. In fact, God’s pruning may have left you feeling like a bare, bleeding stump, wondering what he is going to cut away next. He will not stop tending your life, and really, you don’t want him to. The fact that he is cutting away things in your life reveals that he is carefully cultivating you for growth. How much more fruit would you produce if you were to submit more fully to the pruning of the Gardener’s shears?

Master Gardener, how I want your careful tending of my life, and yet I flinch at the sound of your shears. But do your pruning. Cut away anything and everything that keeps me from bearing more fruit for you.

DIGGING DEEPER