Friday Blog

Pruning for Growth

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Tangled grape vines

Shortly after we moved into our house here in Texas Lisa found two concord grape vines on sale at our local Home Depot. We planted those and the next year bought four more, adding them to our "vinyard " in the back yard. Unfortunately neither of us knew anything about growing grapes! The first year they all took off sending out canes down the supporting wires we had strung along our back fence. The second year they produced a few grapes (almost enough for a single batch of jelly). The next year we got a lot of buds but not a single one matured into an edible grape. What we didn't know then is that in order for grape vines to produce grapes they need to be pruned - every year, all but 5 or 6 buds on each cane. Grape vines produce a lot of growth. First year growth is called a cane, older growth is called a cordon. It is only canes that produce grapes - too many cordons sap the energy from the vine, robbing it of its ability to produce grapes! If you want to produce grapes you have to get rid of the old cordons every year! Relying on what grew last year won't produce any fruit!

The same thing is true with our spiritual lives, you can't rely on yesterdays growth to produce fruit today. If I want to produce fruit I need to have fresh growth today. I need to be willing to allow God to prune off all the old, unproductive , stagnant growth from yesterday (that may have produced abundant fruit) and allow new, fresh growth today by abiding in Him so that I can produce the fruit that I was created to produce.
 
Last Sunday Lisa and I spent a couple of hours out in our back yard pruning the tangled mess of our grape vines in order to enable them to bear fruit this year. What kind of pruning do I need to allow God to do in my life in order bear much fruit?
 
(Disclaimer: these are NOT my grape vines, I failed to take before and after pictures so I had to borrow someone else's!)

 

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