Pruning

In John 15:1 -2, Jesus said, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while  every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 

And in John 15:5 Jesus said, "I am the vine and you are the branches.  If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."

My Mom and Dad grew big beautiful purple grapes in our back yard when I was young.  The grapes needed sun, water, good soil, and of course, my Dad was the gardener.  When the season was right, we had grapes, and out of season, the branches needed to be pruned.

Jesus is the vine, we are the branches, God is our gardener and he prunes us when we need it so that we can produce good fruit in season.  And our good fruit is talked about in Galatians 5:22, "But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness and self control."

If we don't have good fruit, we will be cut off and thrown into the fire.  Galatians 5:19-21 talk about the acts of a sinful nature.  Those acts are, "Sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies and the like.

When you prune a tree, you have to know what you are doing because you can damage, even destroy that tree if you do it wrong, and you can yeild much more fruit by pruning it the right way.  We need to allow God to prune his precious trees the right way.  Submit to Him in all things.  Stay in Jesus and look for an abundant harvest of wonderful fruit.