Pruning the Spiritual Orchard

 

​It is amazing how many spiritual parallels surround us. Those with a discerning eye often find powerful spiritual lessons hidden in the everyday experiences of life.

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Take pruning for example. To prune means to cut away dead, damaged, diseased, or unnecessary growth from a plant so that it can grow healthier, stronger, and more fruitful. Gardeners do this to regulate growth, increase yield, and improve fruit quality.

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To “prune the orchard” is a metaphor for removing unhealthy or harmful things from our lives so that we can grow stronger and bear better fruit.

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This happens in two ways.

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First, we intentionally prune things from our lives because we recognize how they are hindering and hurting us.

Jesus used almost barbaric language to illustrate this point. In Matthew 5:29–30 He spoke of plucking out an eye and cutting off a hand if it causes sin. Jesus was not teaching self-mutilation. He was using deliberate exaggeration to emphasize the seriousness of sin and the drastic measures necessary to separate ourselves from it. Often there are people, places, or habits that must be pruned from our lives because they distract us and lead us toward spiritual unfruitfulness.

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Second, God sometimes prunes our lives through the pains and difficulties we experience.

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Consider Paul. God permitted a thorn in the flesh to come into Paul’s life to harass him in order to keep him from self-righteous pride. Paul pleaded for the thorn to be removed, but the Lord responded, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). Through this experience Paul learned to see suffering differently. What once seemed only painful became a means through which God pruned him and strengthened him for service. Paul went on to write, “I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:10).

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As Henry Nouwen observed, “When we look at a pruned vineyard, we can hardly believe it will bear fruit. But when harvest time comes, we realize that the pruning enabled the vine to concentrate its energy and produce more grapes than it could have had it remained unpruned.”

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In much the same way, our lives bear greater fruit when we prune away what spiritually hinders us or when God prunes us through His providence.

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Written by Craig Ressler