“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. ” (John 15:1–2, ESV)
When I moved to Illinois three years ago, I started a garden for the first time in my life. Growing up my father had always had a garden but I was really not very interested. Up until starting my own garden, I had read in the pages of Scripture about pruning but I had never experienced the abundance of fruit that comes from loving care through cutting a plant deeply.
I recently watched a message from pastor James MacDonald and he shared some observations of God’s work in pruning. His point was the Christian life has seasons based upon a cycle; God sets the pattern. First comes pruning then comes fruit bearing. If we don’t give up pruning happens again. The life of a follower of Jesus is defined by, as James MacDonald says, “Seasons of fruit bearing, followed by seasons of pruning, followed by greater fruit bearing.”
As we follow Jesus in life’s journey, we must be people who willingly embrace God’s pruning in light of the promise of fruit bearing on the other side. Not people who simply endure but people who flourish in the midst of the pruning because we have our joy in Jesus not our circumstances. We must be people who find joy in the midst of the toil of it all, knowing that he who began a good work will complete it in Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6). We must be people who embrace God’s pruning as the blessing that it really is, in order that we might be people who bear much fruit for his glory.
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