Devotional: The Pruning Season

Any good gardener knows the importance of pruning. Removing the dead parts of a tree or shrub maximizes its potential for growth. The gardener sees the value in the tree and knows that by cutting away the areas that are holding it back, or the lifeless parts, the tree can make room for new growth–it can become taller, bigger, and stronger than before. Pruning greatly improves the plants’ ability to thrive, so much so that without it, the plant can never reach its God given potential.

The same is true for us. We need seasons of pruning, as difficult as they may be, in order to grow into the best version of ourselves. John 15 tells us that God is the gardener, Jesus is the vine, and we are the branch.

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so that we will produce even more.” John 15: 1-2

What’s interesting about the pruning process is that it can often look like nothing is happening. Once the dead and useless parts have been cut away, nothing is left but the vine and the branch. And it can look that way for a long time. But now, with everything that wasn’t serving it removed, the branch finally has the chance for regrowth. Little sprouts of new life begin to show up. And eventually, the branch starts to thrive and grow in a new and better way. It starts to produce more than it ever did before.

I think this is how the Lord works in our life. For me, I feel like I’ve been in a pruning season for a couple of years now. And while it can be frustrating at times to feel like growth isn’t happening, or happening too slowly, it’s also encouraging to know that God sees our full potential. And He loves each one of us enough to prune the soil of our hearts to be better than it was before. The pulling away of things that aren’t serving us makes us stronger. And when all that is pruned, we start to grow and thrive in new ways. We produce more fruit, just as God intended. So let’s find rest in our role as the branch, and let the vine fill us with new life!