PRUNING
by Kathy Pegram

As I was thinking this morning about how God spiritually prunes us, I couldn't help but think back to being a little girl. My Grandma Kerley use to pinch heads off of her flowers and I would ask why. She would say you have to pull off the ones that are dying so that other blooms can open. I carried that knowledge with me through the years. I still cut away dead vines on my roses bushes and pull off the dying roses. I love seeing a rose bush that looks dead start opening up with new fragant roses. And before long it looks healthy and alive and brimming with new life.

That's what God does to us, He prunes things out of our lives in order for us to become more like Him. He takes away the things in us that are not Christlike.When God is pruning us, He will put us through numerous tests. When God is pruning us, it might seem as though the whole world has turned against us. There will be people in your life that will not like the fact that you are refusing to continue living the way they expect you to, but the way God wants you to. God will stretch, pull and develop your faith in Him. God desires to strike off the dead areas of our lives. Those areas that produce no fruit for Him. If God is going to cleanse something from us it means it is no longer in alignment with His will for us. By allowing things to be trimmed off us and letting ourselves be cleansed, we will be renewed.

“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.” JOHN 15:1-2 (NLT)

Love and Prayers,
Kathy