In today’s Gospel, Jesus uses this image of pruning to teach us a similar lesson in bearing good fruit for His Kingdom. He wants our lives to be fruitful and He wants to use us as powerful instruments of His grace in the world. But unless we are willing to go through the purification of spiritual pruning from time to time, we will not be the instruments that God can use.
Spiritual pruning takes the form of letting God eliminate the vices in our lives so that the virtues can be properly nourished. This is done by letting Him humble us and strip away our pride. This can hurt, but the pain associated with being humbled by God is a key to spiritual growth.
By growing in humility, we grow ever more reliant upon the source of our nourishment rather than relying upon ourselves, our own ideas and our own plans. God is infinitely wiser than us and if we turn to Him as our source, we will be far stronger and better prepared to let Him do great things through us.
Being spiritually pruned means we actively let go of our own will and our own ideas. It means we give up control over our lives and let God take over. It means we trust Him far more than we trust ourselves.
This requires thar we acknowledge that we are completely reliant upon God in the same way a branch is reliant upon the vine.
Pray today that you will let the Lord remove all that is not of Him in your life. Trust in Him and His divine plan and know that this is the only path to bearing the good fruit God wants to bear through you.
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