Pruning

This is one of our cherry trees. It grows pretty good. Too good. Fruit trees can spend so much energy on leaf production and growth that they fail to produce blossoms and fruit.

People who have productive fruit trees have spent time pruning and shaping their trees for maximum production. Hmm.

We humans are a lot like fruit trees. We spend so much time focused on ourselves that we forget just why it is that God placed us here.

And do you know what He does? He prunes us.

"Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit." - John 15:2

So, how does God prune us? Lots of ways. Just do something against God's will and you'll find out. Everybody gets pruned differently and it's always just what we need to make us grow and become productive.

The Old Testament is full of stories about God pruning Israel. God called His people "stiff-necked." They kept straying from Him and worshipping other gods.

Are our necks also stiff? Will God prune us, and shape us into who He wants us to be?

Yes.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight." - Proverbs 3:5-6

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will." - Romans 12:2

Unless we conform to God's will and trust in Him, we are just asking to be pruned. And we should welcome it.