Our Father The Gardener

Pause:

Before you start reading this devotional, take a moment to stop what you’re doing, slow down and focus on Jesus.

Pray and ask him to open your eyes to see as you read the scriptures, and to open your ears to hear as you wait on the leading of the Spirit.

Read:

John 15v1-2: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes, and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit.”

Going Deeper:

At the beginning of lockdown, sometime in March, I received a prophetic word from a friend and felt the Spirit put something similar on my heart.

My friend texted to say he felt that this time was going to be both a “Refining and Defining” for me. And I felt the Spirit put John 15 on my heart, and say that this would be a time of “violent pruning”.

Sounds like fun, I thought. Refining and violent pruning. Come on 2020.

But as I looked at John 15v1-2, I noticed that God is our Gardener. Or, that the one who prunes us, is our Father. And that has made me feel much more at peace, and able to trust the process in the midst of a crazy season.

I have done a little research on pruning since then and have looked on Google Image at “before and after” pics of vines and rose bushes being pruned (Just a few. Not too many, okay. Just a normal amount of pruning pics and research. I’m not a weirdo.)

But it has been amazing to see how beautiful, green, bright, colourful and alive a rose bush can look before being pruned. Especially when contrasted with how dry, twig-ish and dead a pruned rose bush appears.

If you are in a season of pruning at this time, and feel more like the pruned rose bush, then know these 3 things:

Firstly, our Father, who has already proven his love and commitment to us on the Cross and in so many other ways, is our Gardener.

And whatever pruning He might be doing in your life is for your good, and is something you can trust Him in. He is an expert gardener who knows better than we do what we need, and is faithful and trustworthy and good and kind.

As Tim Keller says: “God will only give you what you would have asked for if you knew everything he knows.”

So know that our Father is the one who prunes us and that He prunes us for our good.

Secondly, God is pruning us so that we will bear more fruit.

If you feel like you could be in a season of pruning right now, as many of us feel that we are, know that this is not punishment. God prunes us because of our fruitfulness, and he prunes us to make us even more fruitful.

In a sense, being pruned should encourage you! And it should make you look forward to the season ahead with anticipation, knowing that there will be even more fruitfulness in your life as you continue to follow Him. And it should also encourage you, because our fruitfulness bring glory to God.

Finally, God is removing other branches from our lives that are not fruitful.

For some of us this time has been hard because we have lost things in our lives that are important to us, but we realise that they actually distract us from Jesus.

At this time God is kindly detaching us from certain things, and prying our fingers off of that which we hold onto too tightly and love in unhealthy and idolatrous ways. And attaching us to more of Him.

God’s violent pruning in these areas of our lives is a brutal kindness. Taking things out of our hands that we would not have let go of on our own, so that we will have more of Him.

In this season, we are all surely learning or being forced to learn to trust God more. As it says in Proverbs 3v5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not in your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

I encourage you during this crazy time to lean into this violent pruning, and to trust your Father the Gardener in all of this, as He tenderly, intentionally, lovingly and strategically prunes and removes branches from your life. And soon we will experience the fruitfulness that this process brings, and the enjoyment of more of Him and His presence that comes out of this season.

Pray:

Respond to God in prayer by speaking to Him about what stood out to you from this passage this morning.

Listen:

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you this morning?

Apply:

What are you going to do in response to what God is saying to you from the text and by the Spirit?