God can use anything for our good and His glory. But that doesn’t mean all things are equal in value. Some great things are better than some good things. Some complete things are better than some partial things. And some lasting things are better than some temporary things.
Pear Trees
We have two pear trees on our property; a Flemish Beauty and a Bartlett. (And before you ask, no, as far as I’m aware, no partridges came with them. *pause for groans and laughter?*) But if you’ve ever owned a Bartlett pear tree you’ll probably know that they especially need some help if they’re going to grow well and bear much fruit.
Without some guidance and care they’ll shoot up in a tangled mess of long, spindly branches reaching straight for the sky, like a string mop at a stick up. This reduces the sunlight within the tree which drastically limits how many blossoms and fruit it can produce. And then when it does try to bear fruit the pears it forms will be difficult to reach or too heavy for those long, vertical branches to hold up. The weight will tip them over, dangerously bending the branches, even at times breaking them right off the tree from the stress.
So, to help these trees not damage themselves and to bear lots of healthy fruit we need to prune their branches.
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”
– Jesus (John 15:1-2)
Chopping Something Nice
Now, pruning can be a difficult task at first. Leaving aside the complexities of planning out the tree’s shape and structure, you may also experience a natural instinct which truly questions whether cutting a tree is actually helping it.
sometimes we need to prune away nice to get wonderful, good to get great, decent to get the very best, and temporary to get lasting.
When you first begin and you look at this young sapling, still small and fragile, with its proud, new shoots triumphantly reaching out into its exciting, new surroundings towards the warm sunshine which beckons it you may hesitate. Chopping off that lovely, fresh growth can seem almost cruel. It is growing after all; in this case quite quickly. Its leaves are green and lush. It’s blossoming. It seems counterproductive to reduce something you want to grow bigger and to cut back something you want to produce more. But it is absolutely better for that tree, its health, its longevity, its fruit and your harvest for years to come if you do.
Just because a tree grows a nice, attractive branch doesn’t mean keeping it and building upon that branch is the very best for that tree. And sometimes we need to prune away nice to get wonderful, good to get great, decent to get the very best, and temporary to get lasting.
“When you prune, you take way something to make what’s left more suitable, more fit, more effective.”
– John Piper
Pruning Our Lives
I think this principle holds true for our lives as well. Most people in the accelerating North American culture I live in consider their lives rather busy. In fact it’s typically a mark of value and worth to consider our lives as such. But busy doesn’t equal effective or valuable or best.
Many of us waste a good deal of time and energy on things we’d even admit are less than useful or important. In other areas we may be filling our time with things that are not bad at all, even things that bear some fruit, but that could give way to even better things.
And in many of these parts of our lives God, our Master Gardener, wants to prune us; not to harm us or make life harder for us or punish us, but to help us and mature us, to bring more health and fruitfulness into our lives.
God doesn’t want simply “okay” or “not bad” or “good enough” for his children.
God doesn’t want simply “okay” or “not bad” or “good enough” for His children. He wants the very, very best. That’s what the gospel tells us. He didn’t give His Son to live and suffer and die and rise, overcoming sin and death and the devil for us so that we could live a “not bad” life. The gospel says He did all that so we might have abundant life, eternal life and the greatest of all life in Christ! (John 10:10, Rom 6:4, Eph 4:13)
“The aim of this [pruning] is to preserve and intensify and make fruitful the branch’s union with the vine.”
– John Piper
Considering the New Year
So, as we approach a new calendar year and perhaps consider the trajectory and content of our daily lives, let’s consider what God may be desiring to prune in us.
- What is God wanting to simplify and refine in our schedules and plans and routines? What better things does He have for us this year? What “okay” is He wanting to replace with His “much more”? (Rom 5:17, Luke 11:13, Matt 7:11)
The Word is God’s pruning knife. – Andrew Murray
- Let our Master Gardener, our Father the vinedresser, speak to you.
(1 Thess 5:17, John 14:26, Ps 1:2, Pro 16:20, Titus 2:11-12, 2 Pet 1:2)
He is the one who does the pruning in us (Phil 2:13). Don’t try to grab the pruners from His hand, you’ll only manage to lop off your ear or toe or make a mess.
“a fruit-tree is no judge of when it needs to be pruned, or digged, or dunged. The wit and wisdom of the garden lieth not in the flowers and shrubs, but in the gardener.”
– Charles Spurgeon
- Hold your goals and dreams and desires and comforts and plans and schedules loosely with wide open hands. Don’t cling to your “okay” when you can have God’s best.
(Pro 3:5-8, Eph 4:23-24) - Rest in the security and the joy we have guaranteed to us as heirs, siblings and branches of Christ Jesus. Abide in Him that way.
(John 15:4, 1 Pet 1:3-4) - And let God prune you and your life by His Spirit and the Word to be the healthiest and most fruitful you can possibly be, as is fitting for a beloved child of God.
“Let us seek to live more simply on the fulness of Christ, and to grow more fruitful in every good word and work, so may our joy in Him and in his salvation be full.”
– Matthew Henry
