So it happened. Two posts in and I have been at a loss for what to write for 3 weeks. Granted, I have been out of town for work and this is the first week I’ve been able to breathe and rest in 8 months…but still, you would think I would have something to talk about.
I still don’t, really, but God has been teaching me and I can always brag on Him. After the last two years of dealing with depression and stress and several friends and family members dealing with really hard things, I have found it hard to find joy. I found it hard to even be happy at times. It seems several times, dealing with various issues in my life, the Holy Spirit has brought me to John 15.
First, I found this gem: “Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in His love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” (v.9-12) My joy is found ONLY in Jesus Christ. That is why at the beginning of the chapter He tells me to remain in Him. It’s taking a while for this to sink in for me and to consciously aim for this every day.
Then just tonight I went back and read v. 2, “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.” When I think about pruning, I think of a plant that has been cut off at the joint, blunt, not cute and looking dead. The only reason that this is done is so that the plant grows back stronger, more healthy and even more beautiful than if the gardener just let it grow free.
Dang. Anybody else catch that? That is so God. He allows things to literally cut us down, sometimes with blunt force and sometimes we feel and look dead. Yet, the reason He lets it happen is so we can “be even more fruitful.” In the first few books of the Bible, I keep reading over and over again God saying “so that they may know that I am the Lord.” THAT is why all the sucky things are happening in my life at once. So that I may know that HE is Lord (and I am not) and so that I can be more fruitful. When will I learn? Not sure, but I hope that in all His pruning of me, I remain in Him and declare Him Lord.
