John 15:1-11

John 15:1-11 
English Standard Version (ESV)

  Raise your hand if you like the thought of being pruned.  Anyone?  No one?  Me either.  I like the thought of being pruned almost as much as my kids like the thought of being disciplined.  Hard to imagine a rose bush is excited about being pruned, and it's highly unlikely that it realizes, at the time, that the pruning is meant to spur it on to future growth.  It is probably only thinking about how much it hurts, in the same way we focus on the thought of being pruned more than we focus on the idea of the future spiritual growth that it might spur.  Here's something to think about -- if God were to do some 'pruning' in your life, what might that look like?  Is there resistance in an area of your life right now?  Are you facing challenges that force you to change or think about things in a different light? 
 Jesus does talk about bearing fruit.  Now, I don't know much about trees.  They're made of wood, but I can't tell the difference between different types of trees.  However, if a tree is covered in apples, I usually am pretty good at guessing what type of tree that is.  Oranges, too -- I almost always get that one right.  I recognize a tree by the type of fruit it produces.  Now, once that fruit is picked, I don't know who eats it or where it goes.  In the same way, I recognize a person by what kind of behavior they have, how they treat one another.  But I don't know necessarily how that behavior might affect someone else.  It may take years before the selfless love of a person truly begins to transform another person.  We don't know.  All we can do is love selflessly and trust in the Holy Spirit.

  If you're interested in an article about abiding in God's love, click here.