When I am going through a tough time in my life, I feel those shears. You know the ones that are cutting you deeply, and you wonder if you'll make it through. Things that matter to me are removed. It feels like everything I love or hold dear is being removed from me life. I've called out to God on more than one occasion in pain and anger asking why He is hurting me like this. Sometimes satan has even whispered in my ear that God is cutting me off.
The truth is that He is pruning me. If you've ever pruned a plant you know that sometimes you have to cut off some growth that is old and weak and sometimes you have to cut off something that appears to be healthy. I have azaleas and one year my largest azalea did not blossom. There were hundreds, maybe even a thousand buds looking like they were ready to bloom at anytime, but they never did. The other azaleas bloomed, although honestly not as well as the year before, but this one's buds went from bright pink to brown and died. I was honestly, very upset. I couldn't understand what had happened! So I started to research.
As I read about azaleas, I learned about pruning them. I had yet to prune these magnificent bushes, and had no idea how to go about it. It turns out that y large azalea bush was in desperate need of some pruning! I read about what to cut, which turned out to be old steams as well as those that had just finished flowering. I went out with my pruning tools and started to chop away at the bush. When I finished, I moved on to the others and trimmed them as well. Then I had to wait.
The following Spring I would know if my pruning would pay off or not. Sure enough hundreds of buds appeared on the big azalea. Soon the glorious bright pink blossoms burst forth all over the bush. As my other azaleas budded and bloomed the same thing happened, red, white, and light pink blooms filled up the bushes. The pruning had worked.
When God prunes us, it hurts! It feels like He takes the good with the bad as He chops and tosses away. It feels like we are left small and lacking. What we don't see is that we are shaped better, without these off shoots or dead branches. Then after a time of healing we start to notice that we have new things budding in our lives. We get excited as we watch those buds open and display a beautiful bloom. Many times we are so caught up in the newness, we forget that there ever was a tie of pruning, a time of removal of something that we were used to or something that appeared good. We may forget, but God remembers how He shaped us, and sees that it is good.
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| gardeningknowhow.com |
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