Posts

Pruning Produces Great Fruit

I live in an area known for its fruit orchards, especially apple orchards. During the winter, the orchard workers go out and prune new limbs off the tops trees. The limbs that are pruned off are known as “suckers”. When I was younger, I never understood why you want to trim off branches that could produce more fruit. Then one day it was explained to me; the tree must be pruned so it will focus its energy on producing good, ripe, juicy fruit for the harvest. If the tree was allowed to keep the sucker branches, it would have to use its energy on growing the non-fruit-bearing extra branches and their leaves, etc. The tree would need to focus on itself, rather than the fruit it was created to produce. It is also important to note that only mature trees are pruned, the young trees are allowed to grow to maturity without the stress of pruning.

Much like the orchardist prunes the fruit trees, the Lord prunes us too. At different levels of maturity, He will prune our branches of selfishness, pride, and any other branches that do not reflect who we are to be in Christ. We are to produce the Fruit of the Spirit, but if we are allowed to focus on “us” we will never produce fruit anyone will desire. Without pruning our fruit would be small, dry, and lack the full flavor of the Life the Lord has given us. But when we submit and allow Him to do it in the right season it will produce great Fruit for the harvest.

We must choose to surrender everything and allow Him to prune the branches that do not produce great Fruit…our “suckers”. Sucker branches will “suck” the Life out of us if we hold onto them. Our flesh does not want to submit and let go of our “us” branches, but we must if we are to have more of Him and grow more fruit.

 
Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” – John 15:2 (NKJV)

 

Pray for a good pruning, that you may grow an abundance of great fruit for the harvest.

Share

The Light Within

When we see a light at the end of a dark tunnel, we should not focus on that light. Instead, we should focus on the Light inside of us, He (Jesus) will carry us through all the “tunnels of life” safely to the other side. No tunnel is too dark for His Light to shine…where there is Light, darkness flees.

Share

Purified by Fire

Humans are “lazy” by nature and will take the path of least resistance whenever it is available. But it is through the pressure, tension and resistance in our lives that we are made strong, both physically and spiritually. We are strengthened and purified through the various “fire” experiences in our life. It may seem like a situation is unbearable and we will never survive the experience, but then we see the light at the end of the tunnel and know we have made it through the fiery storm. When we come out on the other side of the fire, we are able to look back and gain strength from what we have just gone through.

As a Christian, the Lord is our Refiner. He uses the fiery storms in our lives to create the heat that is needed to bring the impurities in us to the surface. If we trust the Lord and surrender our life situations to Him, He is able to remove our imperfections. Our goal should be to be transformed into mirror images of Christ for the world to see. To do this, there needs to be less of us and more of Him.

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image…” – 2 Corinthians 3:18 (NKJV)

When refining gold, the refiner must heat up the gold and keep it at the right temperature long enough for all the impurities to rise to the surface and be skimmed off. If the gold is allowed to cool before the purification process is complete, the gold will harden with impurities still in it. If the refiner heats up the gold too hot, the gold will be ruined. The refiner must keep the gold at just the right temperature until he is able to see his perfect reflection in it. This is what the Lord does in our lives every day. He allows just the right storms in our lives to heat us up to just the right temperature to purify us, it is never too hot or too cold…It is always just right.

Trust Him to get you through the fires of your life, you will come out stronger on the other side.

Share
Translate »