Pruned
Trees need pruning from time to time to remove dead branches or areas where there is overgrowth. Spoiler alert! We also need to be pruned or reshaped at different times in different areas of our lives. I know, I know…it’s not a good time right now, can this wait until next year? Nope!
It may seem counter-intuitive at first, to lose some thing that bears fruit, in order to gain more, but this periodic pruning is for our own good. When we (the branches) find ourselves in union with Christ (the Vine) we embrace our dependance on Him, who supports and supplies us with everything we need. Are you a branch in Him?
Fruit! Not just any fruit, but those suitable to the relation(ship) with Jesus Christ. Not those fake plastic ones that can easily fool people, but the genuine stuff. Come taste and see! To bear such fruit is simply to show by our lives that we are under the influence of the Vine.
Even fruitful branches need pruning - removing every superfluous thing and every hindrance to our fruitfulness. Everything carnal must be cut away so that in the end we can bear more fruit. This is how He sanctifies us. No matter how much we may be attached to it or intertwined with it, and no matter how painful it is to part with, it has to go! He lovingly prunes us, removing those things that bind our affections and hinders our usefulness. This progressive sanctification is the effect of obedience to the Word of God in our lives.
So not a loss, but a gain! Just you wait and see - with those dead and decaying branches gone, there will be nothing else competing for His space.
John 15:2 - Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
Galatians 5:22-23 - But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Matthew 5:16 - Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
