Pruning

by | faith, waiting | 2 comments

The pruning knife Sorbi Pruning the rosesrested on the defenseless plant. “Surely not that one!” I cried as the gardener skillfully cut away another branch. She looked at me and smiled: “Don’t worry my friend. It’s for the good of the plant.”

Watching and listening, I realized the gardener was not removing beauty from the rose bush, she was redistributing its strength. Each calculated cut ensured the plant’s future health.

She called it pruning–subtracting to add, wounding to heal.

God calls it pruning as well–decreasing our fullness to increase our fruitfulness.

Submitting to God’s pruning can be painful. Yielding requires persistent faith. We must hold tightly to God’s character with tears in our eyes.

But our Master Gardener is trustworthy. He loves us too much to elevate looking good above being good. With each cut of His “pruning knife,” God thins our lives in order to thicken our character.

 

(These thoughts first appeared in Pure Joy, by Alicia Britt Chole, published by Thomas Nelson, 2003.)

2 Comments

  1. Leah Adams
    Leah Adams on October 1, 2014 at 6:32 pm

    Beautiful…and true. Cutting away the excess to encourage abundant fruit. I want fruit from my life…whatever the cost.

    Reply

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