I am not savvy in growing flowers or vegetables, but I enjoy the plants’ beauty when they produce what I can see, smell, or taste. I love a full and colorful flower bed, but usually, I wouldn’t say I like to prune anything needing pruning. I tend to plant flowers that don’t require de-heading, and for those that need pruning, I tend to neglect them. Soon, those neglected plants begin to look spindly and brown in places. Not pruning has its consequences.
Jesus said, “I am the Vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser. 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 15:1-2). Pruning is foundational to the sanctification of every believer, but it can be painful. Maybe that is why we resist it, holding to our way despite the spindly and brown thinness that results. In God’s plan, cutting away produces fullness, God’s purpose for us. The pain of pruning must be as well.
Pruning, by definition, means “to reduce the extent of something by removing unwanted parts; to cut away dead or overgrown parts to increase fruitfulness and growth” (Oxford Languages Dictionary). Pruning is how God removes any unwanted part of our lives that hinders our fruit-bearing. Pruning implies we are bearing fruit, but more can be borne, so God cuts away what He knows is hindering growth and draining our spiritual lives. We glorify God by producing much fruit. Jesus said, “I am the Vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Apart from Him, nothing will be done by the believer who abides in Him, even fruit-bearing. This is where pruning comes in again. Cutting away dead or overgrown parts in our spiritual lives is the only way to fullness and much fruit bearing.
I had to ask myself these questions: what is hindering my fruit-bearing? Am I seeing much fruit borne in my life and ministry? Much fruit speaks not to numbers but to fullness and growth. Yes, it can hurt. Yes, we will tend to resist because it will seem as if God is cutting away a part of us we desire to keep. But, if we yield to the pain of pruning, we won’t be spindly, brown, and thin anymore. The consequences will be fruit bearers who prove to be His disciples, glorifying God.