Why Pruning? Ouch!

We are beginning our Pink Nets next week…these are our women bible studies. I am very excited to be leading this effort in our church and I look forward to what the Lord has in store for our Women’s Ministry.

We are studying “Nurture” by Lisa Bevere. She will also be one of our guest speaker in our upcoming Women’s Conference in March.

I want to touch a little on this book because it really is a great source on relationships.

I’ve been thinking a lot about pruning…. Let’s look at the definition:

Pruning is a horticultural practice involving the selective removal of parts of a plant, such as branches, buds, or roots. Reasons to prune plants include deadwood removal, shaping (by controlling or directing growth), improving or maintaining health, reducing risk from falling branches, preparing nursery specimens for transplanting, and both harvesting and increasing the yield or quality of flowers and fruits. The practice entails targeted removal of diseased, damaged, dead, non-productive, structurally unsound, or otherwise unwanted tissue from crop and landscape plants.

In general, the smaller the branch that is cut, the easier it is for a wood plant to compartmentalize the wound and thus limit the potential for pathogen intrusion and decay. It is therefore preferable to make any necessary formative structure pruning cuts to young plants, when possible, rather than removing large, poorly placed branches from mature plants. Wow!!!

Do you hear what I hear? God prunes our lives for our benefit. There are branches in our lives that need to be removed….roots that have grown in us that have been in our lives choking us, these have to be removed. The Lord prunes us to shape our growth…it is healthy for us. Does it hurt? Yes, of course it hurts! But once it’s all gone we are healthier and we can then transplant our love, or thoughts, our compassion, our discernment into others and reap that harvest and increase the yield of our fruit.

Read the definition above again slowly and apply it to your life.

Marriages sometimes have to be pruned….
Friendships sometimes have to be pruned
Families sometimes have to be pruned

Being pruned is a process that is painful and not attractive. But it is necessary so that our branches will be healthy and feed the nutrients to our fruit.

Sometimes we are required to do some pruning for ourselves…..
What is in your life that keeps you from being happy, what stresses you, what thoughts torment you, who brings you down, what memories cause you pain……? Let the pruning begin….

John 15:1,2 I am the true Vine and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.

Have you ever wondered why it is you think the way that you do? Who influences your thoughts? What influences your thoughts? Are you swayed easily?

Our minds are very powerful and they can create havoc in our lives.

I recall when I was a little girl…I had a great fear of the devil appearing to me somewhere in the night. There was one particular night that I awoke in the middle of the night and on our window sill I could see a cat that just sat there looking at me…I was terrified. I could not move, I could not go back to sleep and I literally laid in my bed the rest of the night terrified. I was convinced it was the devil appearing as a cat. I was probably 7 or 8 years old at the time. I must have finally, out of pure exhaustion, fallen asleep and when I awoke I immediately looked to the window sill and there laid a towel bunched up….that, was my devilish cat. To this day I HATE CATS!

That’s how our mind works….something that is wrong or deceitful enters our mind and we are convinced of its existence. We twist it in our mind and give it life. We dwell on it back and forth and we become paralyzed with the idea that it is the Truth!

Have you ever had a conversation with a person that slowly begins to influence you in a negative way? I have…and looking back on it I am still shocked.

On the other hand, under the right circumstances, the influence of others on our lives can be beneficial. There are people who positively affect our thinking and expand our understanding and knowledge. But not all who you listen to is beneficial to you. In general, irrational thinking and irrational ideas foster irrational behavior. Show me a person that goes back and forth consistently, or is extremely happy one day and then extremely sad the next and I will show you an individual who is heavily influenced by several sources in a negative way.

Who influences you? Television is the most powerful medium…they set the social standard of what is acceptable in our society. That’s why these days, before you can blink, so many people say and now encourage “the so-called alternative lifestyles.” A new lingo for our new society!

Husbands influence Wives, Wives influence Husbands….Mothers influence Children, Friends influence Friends, Brothers influence Sisters, Sisters influence Brothers etc….

So if your spouse tells you something you believe him/her right? Well what if his/her thought process is distorted? What if your thought process is distorted? Well... then your influence to others will be distorted also right? Yep, you better believe it…

God wants us to have a clear mind…a truthful one.

God cares how you think….yet our way of thinking is not like His. Isaiah 55:8-9 says: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways” says the Lord “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” He is telling us that because of all our negative influences…WE DO NOT THINK LIKE HIM!

How do you think and learn to think clearly? Phillipians 4:8 “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy think about such things”.

1. When you get a negative thought rebuke it out of your head and fill your mouth
with praise!
2. Wholesome thinking comes to you via honesty and truth.
3. Clear wholesome thinking puts concern for others as a priority. If it’s always
about how you feel, or how you are doing and never about anyone else’s needs then
that’s a problem.

I recall sitting in a room listening to one person’s negative talk and before you knew it everyone else was agreeing and taking ownership of those same feelings. Feelings that had nothing to do with the other people present yet… they were influenced and took on that same thought process. An infiltration was subtly taking place….be careful.

Believe me, I know what I’m talking about…it has happened to me. About 10 years ago, I got a call….was told something….went in and tried to fix it….it was not my battle and it exploded in my face…what happened? I took ownership of the thought process, got suckered into doing the right thing and all in the name of justice and it was not my battle to take care of in the first place. Subtle influences….

The bible also talks to us about casting down all imagination. Why? Because God in His infinite wisdom knew we would deal with this in our minds in a huge way! Seek Him for the truth…even if you have to eat crow in the end! Ask yourself…..Who is influencing You? Alot of times you will realize that the problem is only in your mind....you have tossed it so much back and forth in your head and have convinced yourself of all kinds of lies.

Ruth