A Season of Pruning

Pruning: "When He decreases our fullness to increase our fruitfulness."

I've been going through this transitioning period in life. A seasonal change. Manythings are contributing to the change, but it seems to be more spiritual than anything else. Today I got a devotional from Alicia Britt Chole. Amazing woman of the Lord. The quote about pruning is from her devo this morning, and here is another one:

"Yielding to God's pruning hand requires persistent faith because we must hold tightly to God's character with tears in our eyes."

Only now, I am learning that pruning hurts. In John 15.1-2, Jesus said, "I am the true 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, that it may bear more fruit." Upon any other time reading this verse, I never focused much attention on that last part. In fact, I don't think I even knew it was there. I just knew Jesus pruned you because that is what He did to strip away the bad things from you. That is distortion of the verse.

When you prune a rose bush, you cut away the beautiful budding. That rose is not a bad thing, is it? No way, it is beautiful! We prune so that more can grow! In the same way, Jesus prunes away on our giftings in order to grow them. But, "we must hold tightly to God's character with tears in our eyes."

Now that I know what the Lord is doing with my gifts and talents (where I'm struggling right now), I can rest in knowing that He is taking care of me. It hurts for the moment, but I'm about to blossom again. :) Amazing hope, right? I thought so!