For the next 15 weeks we will be writing reflections based on the scripture passage, John 15:1-15 and its theme, Abiding in the Vine. We will take one verse per week and invite you to join us in first meditating and digesting this passage slowly using lectio divina and then read the reflection. Our writers will be sharing testimony of how this scripture has impacted their lives personally.
For those new to our community, lectio divina is a traditional monastic practice of engaging with Scripture not just for intellectual understanding but to allow the Word of God to speak to the heart and transform our lives. It involves prayerfully reading the scripture four times, pausing to notice the following:
Read the verse and listen for the word or phrase that the Holy Spirit highlights for you.
Read the verse and ask the question, how is my life touched by this word? What in my life needs to hear this word?
Read the verse and ask what is my response to God because of what I have read and encountered? What am I feeling, talk to God about it, listen to Him, feel His uninterrupted love and attention toward you and follow His lead in any way He is prompting you to respond.
Read and rest in the Word and resolve to live it out.
Listen:
“He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.” (John 15:2)
Reflect:
Pruning grapevines for winemaking requires a skillful hand in removing old, unproductive wood to encourage new growth to improve fruit quality and yield. Pruning also opens up the canopy, because fruit needs sunlight during the growing season. Each year, the winegrower needs to drastically reduce the prior year’s growth on the vines to encourage new growth.
My husband’s aunt told me that gardeners should prune with a stiff drink in one hand and a good pair of pruning shears in the other. All you gardeners are saying amen! My son-in-law is a winemaker in France’s Loire Valley and spends a lot of time pruning (while sober).
Just as winemakers prune their vines with care, God prunes us, as his people, from a place of loving kindness because pruning is good for us. We all know this, at least theoretically. Who among us doesn’t want to be more fruitful in God’s kingdom? It’s also true that everything in us resists change and discomfort.
As I look back on the times God has pruned me, it’s for pretty specific things. For example, I tend to operate out of “my own” skills and talents. But I have noticed when I come to the end of myself, God is there waiting. God is pruning me to trust him more. He is detaching me from myself and strengthening my attachment to the true vine. He is opening me up to let his Son shine on the fruit of his vine.
Pruning lets the Son shine on the fruit he is producing in you. May God produce the most excellent fruit in you for the benefit of his kingdom.
Prayer of Response:
Lord, may I have the humility to notice when you are pruning me, and open myself up to your work in me. Give me your grace to see your good fruit that you ripen in me, so that I keep surrendering to your pruning with such care and loving kindness. Amen.
- Reflect back on the times in your life where you sensed that God was pruning you. What fruit did God bring forth?
- Do you sense that you are resisting God right now? Could this be an invitation to do a little pruning in you?
Breath prayers:
As a new weekly rhythm, join us in praying breath prayers each day. We invite you to write your own as well.
Inhale (Breathe in): Prune me O Lord
Exhale (Breathe out): for Your Glory (Repeat)
—Submitted by: Libby Rutherford
Libby Rutherford has been a Lifespringer ever since the first Lifesprings School of Ministry in Grenoble, France. She is a member of the Executive Team. Libby is a wife, mother, grandmother and leads 3 flocks—2 rural churches and an ever-expanding group of chickens. She’s got chicks in the brooder and incubator right now. She lives in rural northwest Illinois.
Feature photo: The Loire Valley, taken by Libby Rutherford)