The theme of fruitfulness appears throughout Scripture. The NIV translation mentions the word fruit 198 times, and Jesus Himself spoke about fruit on multiple occasions.
Fruit is often used to describe a person’s outward actions that result from the condition of the heart.
The goal of the Christian life is to grow towards Christlikeness, so every trait developed in us ought to reflect His character and must be fruit that is pleasing and approved by Him.
As believers we are called to bear fruits or to be fruitful. Bearing fruit is indispensable in a Christian’s life. God requires it of us.
But God in His grace provides us with what we need to produce what He wants.
He helps us to bear fruit in our lives. And He does so in 2 ways:
One by purifying us. God cleanses or purifies us by scripture to be fruitful.
Secondly, God makes us fruitful by cutting or pruning.
Pruning is a gardening term that means to cut off superfluous or undesired branches.
In a spiritual sense, it means getting rid of things in our lives that are undesired, unnecessary or hindering us from bearing good fruit.
In our life’s journey, we experience many things. The good and the bad can help us or hinder us based on what we choose to accept in our hearts.
Our biggest problem isn’t outside of us, but inside our own hearts.
And anything that is hindering us, our growth, our ability to produce good fruit, must be removed through pruning and that is what God wants to do in us.
Pruning is vitally important for us to grow in our walk with God, vital for our own spiritual health and vital for us to bear good fruits.
Someone said “Pruning is the necessary act of spiritual subtraction for the sake of supernatural multiplication”
God prunes us because He cares and loves us. And sometimes the very thing we find
unpleasant may be the very thing we need to be fruitful.
There are 3 truths we can hold on to if we sense God is functioning in His role as the vinedresser in our lives.
Pruning Is Painful
Pruning is what I would call a necessary discomfort. It is not something we enjoy but it will lead us to a healthier, more beautiful outcome.
But what does God want to remove? He wants to remove things that are still attached to us but don’t contain life and prevent us from producing good fruits.
It can be experiences, hurts, disappointments, heartbreaks and what it does is leave us with memories, and attachments that don’t do us any good.
It can be habits and lifestyles that are preventing us from producing good fruit.
So God wants to help us get rid of such deadwood by pruning us.
But pruning is painful because it means we acknowledge the habits, attachments and memories from our past or present.
It can be things no one else knows like our deepest fears, our ugliness, but God does and He’s been wanting to prune it off from you because it has not been helping you.
It’s because we must be willing to open our hearts to revisit these areas of deadwood that we may have ignored or tried to forget but it’s still there in the deep recess of our heart and occasionally it can come back to affect you because it’s not fully dealt with.
Pruning is painful but it is necessary for our growth and our fruit bearing.
God might be putting His finger into areas in our lives that He wants to prune because He loves us and wants us to be free.
He wants to prune guilt, the shame, the emotional and mental attachments we might have to people and places, the agreements we have made with lies that make us believe who we are that are contrary to who God says we are.
If God is going to prune something from you it means it is no longer in alignment with His will for you.
If we allow Him to, He comes in with His shears and prunes away the areas in our life that are unnecessary.
Pruning is painful but it is necessary.
Pruning Is Plentiful
Pruning is plentiful is because we don’t go through pruning just once but frequently.
To bear good fruit for the rest of our lives, we can expect periodic pruning from God to enhance our fruitfulness throughout our lives.
But it’s not just areas of fruitlessness that God wants to prune from us. He also wants to prune the areas in our lives that are fruitful to produce more fruit.
This means the areas we are doing well in, the areas we are excelling in and producing good fruits, God will also prune.
It doesn’t make sense why God will prune what has been working well. We might think don’t fix what is not broken.
If what I’m doing well is producing results, then why does God still want to prune me?
We must understand fruits are what God requires because it’s an indication of a life that is connected to Him BUT God desires and cares more about our character.
He cares more about who we are becoming than what we are doing for Him.
Often what success, whether in life or ministry, can do if we’re not careful, is lead us to become self-reliant, self-confident, haughty and prideful.
So God would allow problems, people or pressures when we’re doing well to prune away pride from our heart.
He would allow things to happen when He sees we’re becoming too self-reliant or too self-confident to make us realize we need to stay connected with Him.
Maybe today we feel like we’re doing the right things, we’re doing well, but you’re facing struggles and challenges and you are wondering why.
Could it be because God is showing you that pride and self-reliance has crept into your heart and He wants to show you there is wormwood in your heart that He wants to prune.
And He wants to do so to keep us humble and dependent on Him so that we can become more fruitful for His glory.
Pruning is plentiful because it’ll continually happen because God cares about who we are becoming, and He wants to step in before pride settles in.
Pruning Is Purposeful
Everything God does, allows, prevents, is on purpose. There is a reason behind everything He does and even in the times we don’t understand what it is, we can trust that there is.
While the pruning process is painful and plentiful, it is always purposeful.
That purpose is to produce fruits in our lives that ultimately will show the world who God is.
He will nourish our souls, shape our character, mold our abilities, and cause our life to become a powerful reflection of His righteous and loving nature.
Like the branches in Jesus’s story, we’re all unique, and our pruning won’t look the same.
He will prune us differently, and specifically but this is a process we entrust to Him, knowing that He is at work in our lives and it’s only for our good.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.– Romans 8 : 28
If we are still wondering, why do I need to go through pruning? I pray you will know it’s because God loves you so much because if He didn’t, He could easily leave us alone.
God prunes so that we can be fruitful and through this, we will glorify Him in our lives.
Daily Meditation
Monday – John 15:1-2
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 does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
Tuesday –John 15:4
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
Wednesday – Matthew 7:18-20
A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
Thursday– Ephesians 4:31-32
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Friday – Galatians 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Saturday – John 15:8
By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
Sunday– Romans 8:28
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
By Pastor Derek Anthony
