“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” John 15:1-2
Spiritual effectiveness and true fruitfulness does not just happen. Real progress and growth comes and continues as a result of careful planning, hard work and in letting go.
If you are like me, you would need to admit that much of our lives are overgrown with useless things and futile activities.
What then shall we do? Firstly, in our planning and scheduling, we need to take a long hard look at all the things that are a part of our lives and how God would view them. Secondly, we have to seek God’s help and wisdom in how to cut away the things and activities in our lives that He would have us free from – those countless things and activities that hinder our growth.
Thirdly, that His wisdom from above will enable us to understand and always remember that a whole, mature life depends as much upon elimination as it does upon accumulation.
We need to constantly move from the irrelevant to the relevant, from being fretfully busy to being more fruitful. Fourthly, we need the wisdom from above to always remind us that so much busyness, clutter and excess is often mere flabby growth without true fruitfulness.
There is no way that we can truly be effective disciples of Christ except through constant and relentless cutting away of the non-fruit bearing suckers that sap away at our energy, our time, our resources and above all, our Christian witness. Selwyn Hughes says, “if we are not able to give up, then we will not be able to give out.”
Finally, and most important of all, we need to give Him our consent and co-operation if He is to do a perfect and complete work in us. We have to trust that the pruning shears are in the hands of our Loving Heavenly Father who has only got our very best interest in His loving heart.
“You, Lord, give peace to those who keep their purpose firm and put their trust in you.” (Isaiah 26:3).
A PRAYER: Lord God Almighty, because you are my loving Heavenly Father through faith in Jesus, I ask you to cut away all those things and activities in my life that you would. In His name I pray. Amen!