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.
John 15:2
Margie and I have been planting a garden for the last few years. Right now we are enjoying tomatoes and peppers, and we have made lots of pickles from our cucumbers. One new thing we planted this year is some muscadines.
I have learned in planting the vines, every few days I have to go out and cut off some sucker vines so that the main vine will rise up to the wire I have for the muscadines to produce. The process of removing these unwanted shoots is called pruning. These sucker shoots rob the main plant of the sap needed for the main vine to produce the fruit we are waiting for. It definitely has been a process this summer with the crazy heat we’ve been having. Also, my vines won’t produce muscadines this year or next. It’s a waiting game.
As Christ followers, God begins a pruning process in our lives as He begins to remove the “sucker shoots,” the things that keep us held back and living in the flesh. The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Colossians, says to put to death those things and put on our new identities as we are being made more into the image of Christ. This process can be painful, however, God knows what is best for us in the long run. And like the muscadines that Margie and I planted, we may not see the fruit right away, but true to His promises, God is completing a new and good work in each of us.