The Purpose of Pruning: Growing and Flourishing in God

Now, we can think of good things like the Lord says, or we can give in to the temptation, or we can give in to accepting what's not God's truth. But it's the lies sometimes that we hear that you're not good enough. You will never arrive. You can never succeed. You're never going to be quite good enough. That's not what God says. Welcome to the iRefresh podcast, where every conversation points to the life-changing power of God's living word. Let's pursue God together, one conversation at a time. Hi, I'm Cheryl with iRefresh, and I wanted to share something that I was really excited to learn when I was doing some yard work in the neighborhood. There had been a few holly bushes that I trimmed a few years ago from our neighborhood when we have the ice storms or when there's that from hot to freezing cold, it does some real wild things to the trees and the bushes. And so we had trimmed some a couple of years ago and I saw some others that I hadn't completely done before I had some shoulder surgery. So I thought this is time to do it because otherwise they're going to completely die. Yeah. And I realized as I began to trim, I had two different trimmers, a small one with just a little hand one, and then one that's a few feet that I can get in and get some of the thicker branches. And as I began to do that, I realized as I thought, wow, there's a scripture about pruning. And I wanted to share that with you and how I saw God's hand when he gives you the practical application of his word is so much fun. So let's read it in John 15. It says, I am the true grapevine and my father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. Yes, I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who remain in me and I in them will produce much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want and it will be granted. And when you produce... Much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father. What a great hope when I realize we might think pruning is like a bad thing, like a discipline. But actually, the pruning is for us to be able to come out thriving. You know, here it talks about how we will be more fruitful. No, God is not trying to just destroy us and allow only bad things to happen. Not true. What God's intention is for us to stay so connected with Him that we're constantly having a dialogue. For me, it's just, I don't know when I'm stopping and starting. There's a constant conversation I'm having. I'm questioning, I'm meditating, I'm wanting clarity. I want His wisdom. I want to make sure I'm making the right decisions on things. Listening for that prompting and His peace that He guides us with. And so I learned when I began to look at one of the first branches or the trees is that there was a lot of dead. So as I began to take a trimmer and cut a few little branches so I could get into the base of it, where I could get to the very bottom where I saw the dead parts, I had to get my big trimmers out. And I began to try to really wedge in there and to cut it. Now, if there was a little bit of life left in the branch, I was struggling. I was pulling, pushing, and shoving and putting all my weight into it to try to trim off a branch. It was so difficult. Some I kind of like, I'm going to have to get my mini saw out. I do like to do that. A little bit dangerous. I'm a little bit crazy with it, but I really enjoy it. So... I thought, what a difference it was when I was trying to do one that had a little bit of green and life in the branch, but it was on its way out, so I needed to trim it. Then I got a hold of one that was completely dead, and it actually was even a bigger branch, about an inch and a half or more, and it just snapped right there. I thought, what a difference when it is dead, how it easily is cut off and tossed away. And I realized, you know, when it's just like God's word, if I don't stay connected and I don't still keep having a conversation with the Lord and thinking about what does the word say? How can I apply his word into my life? How can I hold on to the promises God has for me and for my loved ones? What happens? I become unfruitful. I become like those, the branches. I begin one by one. There's no greenery anymore. It's just browned. It's ugly. It's just like, it's like the winter sometimes when you look at a tree after a while, it just does not look very attractive when you're so used to the beautiful green and then the colorations that happen. But when I was looking at these Chinese hollies and I trimmed away and got into some, there was a place where some of it, when I actually just grabbed a hold of the branch and I could tear it off with my hands because it was so dead, all of a sudden all these ants come flying, just like coming all over, rushing up the branches. And I realized they were going through and eating up that branch. See, that's what the enemy does. The enemy is trying to sniff us out and destroy us slowly but surely to try to snuff out our life. He can do it through where our emotions, we take on a thought and we begin to, and it just takes us down a bad path. You know, we can think of good things like the Lord says, or we can give in to the temptation, or we can give in to accepting what's not God's truth. But it's the lies sometimes that we hear that you're not good enough. You will never arrive. You can never succeed. You're never going to be quite good enough. That's not what God says. The Lord is constantly trying to help to refine us and to tell us what is good. He says to remain, let his words remain in us. Let his words to remind us of who we are, that we, Lord, are loved by God, that the Lord loves and cares for us. You know, he sees and he knows you personally. And so that these branches that are not life-giving to you, he wants to take those away from you because they're harmful. Because if you keep them on, it'll be like what you'll see. If you look at our video version, you'll see what happens. Like this one holly tree is really like half dead. Now, there is a hope because I finally got rid of as many of the dead branches to give a chance for the rest of the thriving part to be able to have the energy to go into the rest of that plant and thrive. Now, there was another one that, wow, it looked like it really had come out of it. So I thought there's not much to trim, just maybe over in the right bottom hand side, I'll just go in and get my big clipper and cut away a few branches. But I realize it's kind of like us. On the outside, we can look so good, so put together, and we're smiling, we're saying all the right things. But when I went down, up, and underneath, there was so much dead that was underneath there, hidden. You know, when we hide those things, we hide our heart, and we don't allow God access, and we don't maybe allow someone that can be trusted to pray and encourage us. That's what happens. More death from the inside comes out. And you begin to see the outside. You start to see glimpses of that death. You know, you can't fake it. You can't fake being a Christian. You can't fake it, you know. You can't. It is, you have to be constantly in that dialogue and reading on the Word of God so that He can bring you life. And we want to encourage you that if you need prayer, reach out to us at info at iRefresh.net. We'd love to pray for you. We want to encourage you. Maybe you have people you can pray along with. Maybe you would love to have a community of where you get together and pray. the way that we've learned through Scripture and God showed us how to do it. We'd love to show you. We have tools and resources available to you. You can reach us again at iRefresh.net. Take a look at what we have. There's places where you can even begin to meditate on the Word and the area at iRefresh at praying Scriptures. If you can just go there, begin to speak out the Word to encourage yourself and knowing that as we stay remained in Him, what you desire, and He's going to respond to you. He says, you may ask for anything you want, and it'll be granted. His heart is for your good. He loves, He cares, He prunes because He cares that much. If this episode encouraged you, don't let it end here. Open your Bible, seek God's heart, and discover the life-changing power of His promises for yourself. Until next time, keep pursuing the God who changes everything.