Sunday Blogvotional: Weakened By The Storm

Imagine you're a fruit tree in the forest of humanity.  In general you're strong, healthy and produce a lot of delicious fruit.  Yet there are times when you barely survive the storms that come your way.  The harsh weather and hurricane winds take their toll on you.  Some of your branches get damaged and weakened.  And like in life when our weaknesses tend to steal our focus and our energy - your weakened branches are stealing nutrients from your healthy parts.  They're fighting for survival while slowly killing you and your spirit. 

Sounds depressing if that's all there was to the story.  But we have a Creator that's bigger than the storms and a Father who is faithful to nurture us.  God understands that we'll never be as fruitful as we can be until we get rid of our "baggage" - our weak branches.  And God is gracious.  He gets rid of our unhealthy branches and prunes what's left.  It's painful but a little pain is necessary to make us stronger in the end.

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 15:2

Encouragement for the week:  A pruned tree is not only made stronger by the pruner but also gets its shape from Him as well.  Don't fight God when you sense Him pruning you.  Instead - thank Him for using the opportunity to shape you into something beautiful and strong.