For the week
" I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 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 15:1-2, NIV.

May God help us to all bear fruits so we won’t be cut off. We should be useful to God and to humanity in our quest to bear fruits. How useful are you and to who? Let us quickly ponder to answer this question and make amends if we aren’t happy with our own responses.

But what I wish to emphasize about the quotation for the week is the pruning of the tree that is already bearing fruits, so it can bear more fruits. A tree with many branches would be hurt if the branches are being cut. It is an exacting task to nurse a crop, water, fertilize and nurture it to grow. The pride of the farmer is to see his crops standing tall in great growth and bearing fruits.

But sometimes, it becomes necessary to prune plants that are already doing well, by cutting off some branches to allow more air, sunlight and more growth. This sometimes is a source of pain to the farmer, especially if he suffered to get his plants grow to the stage at which pruning is required. Indeed, if the plant being pruned has mouth, it would speak to question why It is doing all the right things by bearing fruits, but still being subjected to the pains of pruning by cutting it with sharp cutlasses and being inflicted with wounds. But the farmer would only be inflicting such wounds just to get the plants to bear more fruits.

Beloved, cutlass wounds, hardships, misfortunes and afflictions do not only occur when one has sinned. Sometimes, we may be doing all the right things but would still experience some inexplicable losses. Suddenly there would be sicknesses, business collapses, deaths, job losses etc and like the plant that is already bearing fruits, we may also question God because, after all, we’ve been devout Christians, always doing what is right and bearing fruits.

But the Scripture said, the pruning of the tree bearing fruits, is to enable it to bear more fruits. So the affliction of the righteous is also to strengthen and position him to get him to do more and receive more blessings. We cannot be complacent in thinking that we’ve been right with God, and hence we cannot suffer any affliction. God, our great farmer would still prune us by cutting us and weeding around us so there can be more air to push us to grow more and bear more fruits, even when we think and know we are beating fruits.

Let us therefore not complain too much when we do the right things and yet suffer losses. God is fair. He’s not wicked. He knows what He’s doing. He may be pruning us to get rid of bad people in our lives, wrong attitudes and all other things that frustrate more growth and fruit bearing. Ultimately, we would be the winners in spite of the cutlass wounds we may have suffered through our pruning.