Spiritual Pruning
I wanted to follow up to Sunday’s Sermon on Spiritual Pruning.
Before Jesus went to the cross, He shared a message to His disciples in which He used a gardening metaphor to describe the importance of growing spiritually and drawing strength from Him (the true vine). He said:
“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
Jesus was telling the disciples and all of us at Beach Church that by staying connected to Him we would all bear great spiritual fruit. Yet, that He would need to do some pruning in our lives to bear the abundance of fruit He desires for us.
The fruits are described by the great apostle Paul in the book of Galatians.
(love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control)
You see, a vinedresser doesn’t let his fruit grow wildly on its own. In order to produce the best fruit, he must follow the established rules of pruning by cutting away dead or overgrown branches to encourage growth.
Like the branches in Jesus’s story, we’re all unique, and our pruning won’t always look the same. Yet, some of the weeds are universal. Remember, pruning is part of our spiritual maturing process. Thus, we need to trust Him and know that He is doing it out of love.
Below are just a some of the reasons God prunes us.
1. God prunes us so we become more secure in our Christ identity. He prunes back our insecurities and labels that have been placed on us to become who He designed us to be.
2. God prunes us so that we will bear more fruit. God looks at our lives and concludes that we are not bearing as much fruit as we could. We are out of balance, have dead weeds the are sucking the good nutrients away our spiritual vitality.
3. God prunes us so that we will become more dependent on Him. God does not prune us in order to discourage us; He prunes us so that we will learn to abide in Christ.
4. God prunes us so that He is free to answer more of our prayers. Divine pruning results in learning to abide in Christ, which in turn results in our weeds not blocking God’s prayers for us.
5. God prunes us so that we will glorify Him. As believers in Christ, we do not live to draw attention to ourselves, but to our glorious God and Savior.
As I highlighted in my sermon last Sunday from outer space, we need to trust the process of pruning. If God is going to prune something from you it means He sees an opportunity to help you mature.
Don't fight the pruning process. The longer you try to hold onto dead branches like broken relationships, sin or insecurity, you prolong the inevitable. By allowing things to be trimmed off you and letting yourself be pruned, you will be rejuvenated. You will gain clarity and purpose
Yes, as I said on Sunday, pruning can be painful. The cutting away is almost never pleasant. You will experience loss and grieve over what can no longer be and that is okay. However, there is great joy ahead as God removes things that are holding you back from walking in your Christ identity.
As God knows when we’re well pruned, we’re better equipped to receive the rich nourishment that flows through the vine. When we’re well nourished, we will bear vibrant, beautify, juicy fruit like a perfect Baja mango.
As children of God, I pray we may all closely connect and abide with Christ and willingly submit ourselves to the process of pruning by being humble and obedient in heart.
As we don’t want the dead, diseased, and unruly weeds in our lives to deter us from receiving all He has for us.
As the more abundant the fruit of His Holy Spirit is in us, the happier we’ll be and more we can influence and impact our families and our community while bringing God all the glory He deserves.
Have a super day,
Pastor Rick