pruning

Jesus used the analogy of pruning to explain how we are to grow in our Christian lives; like grape branches connected to the vine. One year my mother told me to trim all the grape branches. I didn't want to so I really did a wack job on them, I mean really cutting them back as if just to cut them out. We had the most amazing yield of grapes that following harvest and every year they kept getting a little less and less because no one wacked them back like I had.

Pruning in our lives certainly doesn't sound pleasant. It's actually a cutting out a part of who we are. But often parts of who we are are not good, at least not in God's eyes, and in the end not good, period. But in our sinful minds and hearts we hold on to these things for dear life, not wanting to let them go. Or wanting to want to let them go if we know they're wrong, yet gravitating back to them.

Pruning as in God cutting things out of our lives is necessary if we're branches that are to remain in the true Vine- Jesus. If we don't receive this pruning we're eventually cut off, we wither up and die. But when pruned we end up bearing much fruit, showing ourselves to be Jesus' disciples.

What are we aware of right now that we're holding on to, but we know is not right? It could just be a thought, but a sinful thought. Or attitude. We need God's pruning in that area by the word and by the Spirit through Jesus. It will be painful, yet afterwards will come the fruit of righteousness and peace.