We have some rose bushes in our yard that have to be severely pruned every year or they would get out of control.

However, when you prune them, they look like they will never come out of it. We basically leave only small stumps.

But pruning helps the plants.

It not only shapes the bushes, but creates more abundant, prettier roses, and a healthier plant.

Pruning also gets rid of dead branches.

When you prune grape vines, they look like bare sticks, but in the summer, they produce sweeter, better grapes. It takes a severe pruning. But with bonsai trees, people tenderly snip off just a little at a time.

There are times that we as God’s children also need to be “pruned”.

We need the dead things taken out of our lives and we need to be shaped into a better believer.

Our fruit may be small or even rotten, so it is necessary in order to help us be a person who produces better fruit for God’s kingdom.

It can be painful and we may come out of it looking pretty mangled, but it is sometimes necessary.

There are times when God snips off just a little at a time and other times when it feels like God is taking off a whole branch. That depends on where we are spiritually and what the Master Gardener wants to do with us.

John 15:2 says: He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so that it will even be more fruitful.

Our Fruit is not only the fruit of the Spirit as in Galatians 5:22-23–love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control–it is how we live our lives, the people we bring to faith in the Lord, and the legacy that we leave.

Pruning may not be pleasant, but it reveals a better person, and what we truly believe.

May we be like those in Psalm 92:14: They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green.”

Lord, even though I dislike Your pruning, help me to take it with grace and learn from it, so that I can bear sweeter, more abundant fruit for You.

–by Pam Rehbein