Lose In Order To Gain

“Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.”  John 15:2

In my backyard there is a running rose bush on the chain link fence.  It was there in 1972 when we moved into this home so it has been around a long time.  The blossoms have the sweetest fragrance.  I have often said that if I could find a perfume with that same wonderful fragrance, I would wear it.  Some perfumes give me migraines so I don’t normally wear them.  Up until a few years ago, I had never pruned that rose except to cut off the long branches that were unmanageable and the dead branches.  A couple of years ago, I decided to prune it a little more severely, and would you believe it produced about 100 roses that year?  I now prune it in late winter/early spring, and it already has several buds.  I always look forward to spring and all the beautiful flowers, but I am not thrilled about the pollen.  My black car turns yellow at this time of year.  However, since we really can’t go anywhere because of the “shelter in place” orders, I will wait a while to wash it.

Roses, shrubs, and trees are not the only things that need pruning.  Believers in Jesus Christ have to be pruned as well.  Otherwise we won’t produce much fruit for the kingdom of God.  And that’s what we are supposed to do–produce the fruits of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).  However, if we are carrying around a lot of baggage, such as envy, strife, selfishness, and indifference, how can we produce a decent crop of influence toward those with whom we come in contact?  When we act like the rest of the unbelieving world, then we have failed as a witness for Christ.  Why would anyone pay any attention to our words and our lives if they see nothing that would attract them to join us as a follower of Jesus Christ?  If we are carrying around a dead weight of sin, it will certainly slow us down, cause us to fall behind in our spiritual growth, and rob us of the joy that we should be experiencing as a child of the King.

If Jesus never pruned us, cutting away the dead, useless, and wasteful parts of our lives, there would not be much left with which to glorify His name and make a difference for the kingdom of God.  He knows what we need to lose so that we can gain the growth and maturity that we need to become more like Christ.  Sometimes that pruning hurts, hurts a lot.  An unpruned fruit tree can still produce fruit, but its fruit won’t be as sweet and satisfying as the fruit from the tree that has grown stronger and more productive by pruning and by the tender care of the One who owns the orchard.