“Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”John 15:2 NKJV
What It Takes to Thrive
In both gardening and spiritual terms, planting and harvesting are exciting seasons. Planting is the start of an adventure; harvesting is the product of hard work. It’s easy to celebrate new beginnings and hard-earned completions—but one thing that’s not as much fun?
The pruning process.
Who wants to acknowledge what’s dead and unproductive in their lives? Who wants to trim back what’s already blooming—leaving you smaller, awkward, and feeling extra weak?
But pruning is exactly what we need to keep producing fruit.
“He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”
John 15:2 NIV
Jesus mentions two separate actions in this process—cutting off what’s dead and pruning fruit.
Cutting out what’s dead makes sense. It’s extra weight, it’s unproductive, it’s blocking sunlight, and it’s stealing good energy from branches that could thrive. But without proper context, pruning fruit feels backwards.
However, the purpose of pruning isn’t to disable something, but to revitalize it.
If a branch is weak or diseased, it could not only damage itself, but the surrounding trees as well. Without pruning, both the tree and the life surrounding it can never reach full potential.
Pruning creates room for more growth.
Pruning stimulates production.
Pruning keeps the plant or person strong.
God is a good Gardener. He wouldn’t be a good Gardener if He left you to yourself—overgrown, ineffective, and full of dysfunction. But He cares for those He loves. He cuts off what’s dead for your benefit. He lovingly trims back ineffective things in your life to make way for more fruit.
You can trust God with your life because He cares about who you are and who you can become.
So what “dead branches” are you dragging around? Is it possible that God is pruning you for future growth? Take a few moments and talk to God about any areas in your life that you recognize need to change.
Reflection: Is it possible that God is pruning you for future growth? Take a moment to acknowledge and surrender the areas in your life that need to change.
Share your faith: Today, remind someone that the purpose of pruning isn’t to disable us, but to revitalize us. We can trust God—no matter the season.
Prayer: God, You know everything about me. You know the areas of my life that have potential, but are being held back by broken patterns, sinful habits, and unhealthy relationships. Please bring healing to my life by cutting away anything that’s cluttering or destroying my heart and mind. Transform me so that I continue to bear healthy fruit. In Jesus’s name, Amen.
Note after sharing the devotional: The following question jumped out to me:
“So what “dead branches” are you dragging around? Is it possible that God is pruning you for future growth? Take a few moments and talk to God about any areas in your life that you recognize need to change.”
At this point, the “dead branches” are baggage. I currently have minimal contact with anyone who I’ve learned to be toxic, but the sinful patterns remain, and the broken patterns are in the process of being healed. Although I’m aware of my capacity to commit any sin, I also know of two main sin areas. I have begun praying for God to break and remove whatever it is that has caused me to fall into those areas of temptation. Recently, after a relapse into one of those areas, as I was confessing and repenting, I got the sense that, unlike previously, what it would take was not to process it more in order to either “make sense of it “or to “tell my side of the story,” but rather to spend more time with Jesus, specifically to immerse more of myself in Him. One way to look at sin is that it’s a form of worship of someone or something that isn’t the God of the Bible: if you worshiped your way into a sin pattern, to break free you must worship your way out of it. And so it must be.
As for the broken pattern, I have to confess that picking up the habit of reading my Bible every day has been difficult and felt impossible to do. This has been the case since last August, when in a fit of deep frustration, I gave up, under the disguise of “taking a break.” (I shared more details about this in yesterday’s post.)
With God’s help, I’m starting to see that a contributing factor was a reading assignment from a well-meaning friend (Deuteronomy 28) that ultimately backfired. It was given to both my wife and me as we were both going through major struggles and having trouble seeing a way forward in each of our lives. I started reading through the chapter, noted the disproportionate tilt toward the curses for disobedience compared with the blessings for obedience, and I noped out of there.
I do desire to have God take my dead branches. I have no desire to keep them around. What is still very hard is understanding what good things might lie ahead. I hear that “the best is yet to come,” but honestly, as it pertains to this life, I’m just not seeing it. I understand that if I walk with God and abide in Christ for the rest of my life here on earth, then my eternity will be spent in heaven with Jesus. And that’s the best news ever. I believe it, even though I still struggle to grasp it in a way that translates to me being able to fully live my life as such. But I also struggle with the reality of “life on earth really stinking” that, unless I have something tangible to grab onto, it’s hard for me to be motivated to push myself to endure something. Blessings for obedience? Great. What is my obedience and what are the blessings? (Deuteronomy 28 does state these things.) When my life story has honestly read more like the list of curses for disobedience, how can I be sure that I could ever be truly blessed beyond my wildest dreams? I don’t doubt that God can do it. I do doubt that somehow I’ll be able to figure out my part, because evidently I do have a part. Does that mean that it all hinges on me? I don’t know if that is pressure I can live with.
Meanwhile, to get off of me, considering I’ve now answered the question that I wanted to raise, here is Deuteronomy 28:1-14 (I’m not pasting verses 15 through 68, although you can find them here if you are so inclined to read through them):
““Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God: “Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country. “Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. “Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. “Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. “The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. “The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. “The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. And the Lord will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. The Lord will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them. So you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right or the left, to go after other gods to serve them.”Deuteronomy 28:1-14 NKJV
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