Cut that OUT! The value of Pruning & Growth

Cut that OUT! The value of Pruning & Growth

John 15:2  

Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

Today, I took the day off work to get some things done for my real estate clients and get caught up (somewhat) at home.  As I was standing at the back door, I was gazing out at the small gardens that we had helped the kids plant earlier in the season.  They were really excited about about the prospect of taking care of plants until about the third week into it.  Then it became mostly my project.  That is another blog post.

What struck me, though, as I stood and contemplated how little fruit we had harvested from the garden, was how little we had pruned any of the plants in the garden.  Although I am an amateur gardener, at best, I still realize the value of pruning.  Once a garden plant is established and it has enough area to produce fruit, the plant requires pruning of some of its branches which will not produce as much fruit so that the more productive branches will maximize their fruitfulness.

It is the gardener's job to know which branches to cut and which ones to leave.  And, even in the branches left to fruit, the gardener still must keep new shoots at a minimum.  All this will allow the plant to focus its energy, not on expanding its area of growth, but on growing fruit in the areas it has already developed.

Even though the kids were excited to see their gardens grow six feet tall and at least that many feet wide, they would have been even more excited to actually have a decent harvest from their plants.  I had just failed to lead the kids through the practice of pruning their plants to maximize fruitfulness.  Thus, we only realized a small amount of produce from their plants.

What does this have to do with me?  I am not a gardener.

In our lives, we grow in different areas.  If we do not allow God to prune our growth and just let ourselves grow wild, we will stretch ourselves too thin and not produce fruit in the areas where we could maximize our produce.  We may produce some fruit.  But, it will be nowhere near the harvest had we focused our energy on the areas where we are called to be fruitful.

Although we may have a decent understanding of our own lives, with God's wisdom and pruning shears we truly narrow down to the areas where we will be most effective in our pursuits (Heb 12:6).  If we spread too thin and too wide, we lack the energy to devote to being truly fruitful (Isa 18:5).  But, when we submit to the hand of the Father, he helps us focus our energy on bearing fruit in the branches which he would have us cultivate.