The Pruning Process
If you are a gardener, you know the principle that in order to promote proper growth and production of fruit on a tree; you must occasionally prune the branches. There are multiple reasons why we need to cut the branches back. First and maybe most important is so that they don’t become a safety hazard for someone. We don’t want a dead branch to fall on a person’s head or a low hanging branch to hit someone in the face. We also clip back branches that are unhealthy or that have become infested with insects. This makes the whole tree healthier and more productive. And finally trees are pruned to make them more beautiful and shapelier. God does the same thing in our lives. He prunes us so that we are not a danger to other people and He trims us to make us more beautiful on the inside, but He also snips off the parts of us that are not healthy, so that we can become more productive for His plans and purposes. This struck me recently as God has just opened the door of opportun...