Some Thoughts

I attended a youth meeting with my daughter last night. So as not to embarrass her, I stuck to the background and let her do her own thing. As such, I basically ignored her and really listened to everything going on: the message encased in worship, the message of the skit performed by dozens of youth and the message shared by the youth pastor. It was a great service for the youth because it really gave them insight into being lost without a Savior. Many of these kids have been in church all of their lives, and many of them have accepted the wonderful gift of salvation God offers us freely; but there were some who were visiting and may not have heard the gospel of Grace, and although only God can judge the heart, there may have been some kids there who grew up in church but had never really accepted the free gift of salvation.

Two verses of Scripture were shared during the message: Hebrews 13:5 and Isaiah 53:5. These are both wonderful verses that remind us that God planned long before Jesus came to send His son to take on the sins of the world and to never leave us! While listening to the message, my ever-active mind started to get curious about the context of those verses. Although I have read the Bible all the way through, I tend to be like the Israelites who wanted to go back to Egypt: they forgot! They forgot how horrible slavery was in exchange for erroneous memories of the stability they had. They forgot the beatings they endured for the meals provided for them. They forgot how sparse the meals were for the memory of knowing where their next meal would come from. I too forget the context of some of the most quoted verses in the Bible, of which Hebrews 13:5 and Isaiah 53:5 are a part.

So I began to read Hebrews 12. This chapter in a nutshell reminds us that God is a loving Father who disciplines us because He loves us. He would not discipline us if He didn’t love us. Sometimes we may find ourselves in the midst of very blatant sins, but more often than not, it’s the subtly-laid sins that capture us, the ones that infect our thoughts!

Romans 7:21-25 (NLT)

I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.

As I reflected on this, I realized that God gave me the answer to this prominent issue in humanity!

Hebrews 12:11-13 (NLT)

No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way. So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees. Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong.

God also gave me more motivation for fighting this battle that wages war in our minds. I read further in Hebrews 12 to discover that He gives us a clear warning. It is His deepest desire that we worship Him with a pure heart, one that is solely devoted to Him. He wants our heart because when we give Him our hearts, He will not leave us alone but will walk with us through the things we struggle with, especially in our minds.

Hebrews 12:25-29 (NLT)

Be careful that you do not refuse to listen to the One who is speaking. For if the people of Israel did not escape when they refused to listen to Moses, the earthly messenger, we will certainly not escape if we reject the One who speaks to us from heaven! When God spoke from Mount Sinai his voice shook the earth, but now he makes another promise: “Once again I will shake not only the earth but the heavens also.” This means that all of creation will be shaken and removed, so that only unshakable things will remain. Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe. For our God is a devouring fire.

Do you see that the only thing that is unshakable is God Himself? Look to Him today to give you strength to overcome the battle that wages in your mind. I believe there is a scripture that reminds us of this.

1 Corinthians 10:3-5 (NLT)

We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.

1 Peter 2:11-12 (NLT)

Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world.

The way to fulfill 1 Peter 2:11 (keep away from worldly desires that wage war against our souls) is to capture those rebellious thoughts, teaching them to obey Christ. Of course, it is only in His Grace that we can do that. So look with me today to the One who will never leave us and will help us capture those thoughts and strongholds in our lives.

In His Grace!

Connecting: It's Good For The Soul

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about humanity and our need to be and feel connected. We develop friendships on many levels from acquaintances to close, intimate friendships and everywhere in between. All of these people are a part of our circle of friendship. It is my desire to live my life in such a way that those people in my circle of influence know that I genuinely care about them. I have been wondering how to do this in a practical way, short of wearing myself thin trying to reach out to everyone I know, and my prayer has been that this quest to show Christ’s love to people around me will not become a burden in my life but a blessing to them and me.

Over the past few days, God has been answering my prayer as I have realized first-hand what a true blessing friendship is to me. Last week, an old friend of mine contacted me to tell me that a mutual friend had asked about me. I sent a thank you message to the other friend and received such a genuine reply that really touched my heart. You see, neither of them were close friends that I had developed an intimate friendship with, but they were simply friends in my circle at one time in my life; and yet, knowing I had weathered some storms in my life and not hearing from me in a while, they cared enough to check in on me. I also received a call from another friend on Sunday. We talked for about twenty or thirty minutes about everything and nothing. This friend wasn’t in a crisis or have an agenda but simply called to share a few moments with me. That phone call spoke love to my soul because even though it was limited in time, it still said, “I am making time for you because I love you!” These are the type of blessings I want to be to everyone in my circle.

As I thought about these experiences, God reminded me that He created man in His image to walk with him in the garden, but even then He still said it was not good for man to be alone so he created woman from man’s rib.

Genesis 2:18-23 (NLT)

Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.” So the LORD God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one. He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him. So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the LORD God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man. “At last!” the man exclaimed. “This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man’.”

Man needed a companion, a friend, someone to share experiences with, to laugh with and cry with. Only when God brought another person to man was he satisfied! We all need other people in our lives to enrich us, to encourage us, to share life with.

I thought about this issue further after my son shared an experience with me when I picked him up from school yesterday. He and his sister mentioned that it had been picture day. They had taken individual spring pictures as well as pictures of their classes. My son informed me that he was the last person to be photographed for the day, and the photographer gave him a compliment. When I inquired he said that the photographer told him he had a perfect smile and that his was the best photo of the day! My son was elated at the compliment because he said that he didn’t know that he had such a good smile.

Proverbs 25:11, ESV, says “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.” I like pretty things, soothing things, and when I think about apples of pure gold in a setting of silver, I think of something that is genuinely pleasing to my soul. This was the case when I received the message back from my friend because I never expected it. That message was “fitly spoken”. This was the case when my friend had a few minutes and called to share that time with me. That time was a “word fitly spoken”. This was also the case when my son received the compliment on his smile. It touched him in his soul. That was a “word fitly spoken”. Everyone needs to know that someone cares!

Even the disciples who spent all of their time with Jesus struggled with knowing that they were important to Jesus. This was evident when they argued about it while Jesus shared the last Passover meal with them (Luke 22:24). We are no different than the disciples in our need to know our worth. While we should derive our sense of worth from who we are in Christ, sometimes it’s nice to hear that word fitly spoken that soothes our soul. So as my prayer is answered, God gave me the last piece of the puzzle that had bewildered me in regards to my quest to be a blessing to those in my life.

Colossians 3:12-17 (NLT)

Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful. Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.

God reminded me this morning through these verses that the key to showing His love to others in my circle is to live my life in a genuine way. Living the Christian life doesn’t mean we are perfect; it means we love Him and love others with a genuine love that looks beyond our faults. It means we live in His Grace daily, and we extend that Grace to others. It means we truly grasp the full meaning of His Grace in our lives so that we can extend it to others. So let’s get out there and show those in our circle that we love them.

In His Grace!

His Work Here

Isaiah 58:1-14

     “Shout with the voice of a trumpet blast. Shout aloud! Don’t be timid. Tell my people Israel of their sins! Yet they act so pious! They come to the Temple every day and seem delighted to learn all about me. They act like a righteous nation that would never abandon the laws of its God. They ask me to take action on their behalf, pretending they want to be near me. ‘We have fasted before you!’ they say. ‘Why aren’t you impressed? We have been very hard on ourselves, and you don’t even notice it!’

     “I will tell you why!” I respond. “It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves. Even while you fast, you keep oppressing your workers. What good is fasting when you keep on fighting and quarreling? This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere with me. You humble yourselves by going through the motions of penance, bowing your heads like reeds bending in the wind. You dress in burlap and cover yourselves with ashes. Is this what you call fasting? Do you really think this will please the LORD?

     “No, this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people. Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help.

     “Then your salvation will come like the dawn, and your wounds will quickly heal. Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory of the LORD will protect you from behind. Then when you call, the LORD will answer.

     ‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply.

     “Remove the heavy yoke of oppression. Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors! Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon. The LORD will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring. Some of you will rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities. Then you will be known as a rebuilder of walls and a restorer of homes.

     “Keep the Sabbath day holy. Don’t pursue your own interests on that day, but enjoy the Sabbath and speak of it with delight as the LORD’s holy day. Honor the Sabbath in everything you do on that day, and don’t follow your own desires or talk idly. Then the LORD will be your delight. I will give you great honor and satisfy you with the inheritance I promised to your ancestor Jacob. I, the LORD, have spoken!”

Today I got online only to discover something I didn’t agree with. I commented on it and received a reply back that really upset me because only a very small portion of what I had said was acknowledged. My natural human reaction was to reply back trying to get this person to see things from my point of view, but something in my spirit held me back. I felt the Holy Spirit nudging me from inside asking me if trying to get this person to see things from my perspective would honor God. I recoiled immediately and even encouraged someone else to also not get into an argument online with this person.

I then pulled out my Bible, opened it up and read the passage of scripture at the top of this blog entry. I was immediately humbled at realizing that He was telling me all along that I need to put my efforts into serving others, not disagreeing or arguing with them because serving others will honor Him. It will meet the needs of others pointing them to the One who provides for us. It will satisfy my soul because I have listened to Him, doing what he has called me to do, and that will draw me closer to Him.

I love the Lord, my God, and I truly want to honor Him with my life today. I would also like to encourage you to do the same. Maybe He wants you to call a lonely friend today. Maybe He wants you to take a meal to someone who is struggling physically. Maybe He wants you to smile at the person in the grocery store with the biggest scowl on his or her face becoming the only bright spot in that person’s day. Maybe He wants you to spend time in prayer for someone you know is going through something difficult, be it physical, emotional, spiritual, financial or any combination of things. You never know what your actions may do for someone else. I urge you to remember the words of Jesus in Matthew 25:37-46

     “Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’

     ”And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’

     “Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, ‘Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons. For I was hungry, and you didn’t feed me. I was thirsty, and you didn’t give me a drink. I was a stranger, and you didn’t invite me into your home. I was naked, and you didn’t give me clothing. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’

     “Then they will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you?’

     “And he will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.’

     “And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life.”

Should we only do these things as a penance to God to bring about His approval for a day? Absolutely not! It is my belief that this is the way He wants us to live daily as we walk in His grace. When we are His hands and feet wherever we may go, then is He glorified on this earth. Sure, we all struggle because we are human with a sin nature, but in His grace we can overcome these struggles we face and offer that same grace to those around us. Join me today!

In His Grace!

Restoration Begins Here!

James 5:19-20 (NLT)

My dear brothers and sisters, if someone among you wanders away from the truth and is brought back, you can be sure that whoever brings the sinner back will save that person from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins.

Galatians 6:1-10 (NLT)

Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important. Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else. For we are each responsible for our own conduct. Those who are taught the word of God should provide for their teachers, sharing all good things with them. Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.

Today I’d like to share an experience in my life that has impacted me in a great way. I have been on both sides of these verses in my own life. I remember a time when a friend of mine was going through a very difficult time in her life. Over a short period of time, she had become more and more distant from me. This was shocking considering we had previously been great friends and prayer partners. We regularly watched each other’s kids and helped each other clean our own homes as well as working together to help clean others’ homes. She had moved, so I attributed this distance to the physical distance, but after a while of rarely hearing from her, I had a gut feeling something was not right, and I felt that God was telling me that I needed to intervene for my friend. I fasted and prayed for her for an entire day praying for the truth to be revealed. At that point, I called her and she broke down to tell me what had been going on in her life. She had fallen away from God and was living for herself. As a result, she felt empty and used up!

I went to her house and spent most of the day praying with her and sharing the love of Christ with her. She remembered where she had fallen from and recommitted her life to the Lord right then. It took her months to be restored, but as I watched her faith soar, it was a joy to know that I had helped restore her, saving her from death! I had heeded Galatians 6 that admonishes us to be careful that we do not fall into the same temptation. Sadly, I must’ve stopped short on the verse that reminds us not to get tired of doing good as I began to become weary at some point in my walk with the Lord.

We moved to a new community, and I had not connected with many people. It seemed very hard to make those connections no matter how hard I tried, and I felt all alone. Instead of doing something about it by looking for someone to encourage or taking a meal to an elderly neighbor who was caring for her husband who was in the final phases of Alzheimer’s, I chose to get more and more down. Add to that the challenges of having a new baby who quickly became a toddler all while trying to homeschool our older two children and dealing with added marital stress, I began to give up. My faith was faltering, and I was giving up. I decided to get a job to try to make connections thinking I could revive my faith by putting my faith in action, but I was not strong enough in my faith to stand strong in that environment. My marriage got worse and we almost ended up divorced.

It seems I had forgotten the verses that say, “Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.”

I had given up and decided to live for myself. I was certainly only living to satisfy my sinful nature, and when all was said and done, I was just like my friend had been. I felt used up and worthless. There were many brothers and sisters in Christ who came alongside me and restored me. My husband has come back from the brink of the destruction the enemy intended for his life as well. God has given us both a special grace that had not been there before, and it is amazing to see him walking in that grace. For me, it’s been a long road back, much longer than the months it took for my friend, and I still struggle with God’s grace, but I am learning to walk in that grace daily and sometimes moment by moment.

May you be encouraged to walk in His grace even when you feel unworthy. He loves you more than you can ever understand.

In His Grace!

Overcoming Sickness

Over the past two weeks, I have been sick with some kind of unknown virus. My hubby and I have both been struggling to get over this virus with strange symptoms. It seems that the symptoms change not only day-to-day but almost hour-by-hour. Now it has not quite been every hour, but I have certainly noticed different symptoms affecting me at several different points throughout the day. The symptoms ranging from being overly tired to just not feeling right to feeling congested seem to come and go randomly as they see fit.

This morning my energy level is finally almost back to normal (I actually felt like getting out of bed this morning and feel like doing something today), but I still have a little bit of congestion. I cannot seem to cough it all out of my chest. This weekend was a fairly “normal” weekend for us with all of the activity of parents with three children who are renovating a home so I really didn’t have much to write about this morning. I was praying and asking God what to write about today and He pointed me to some scriptures about sickness.

As I read these scriptures, God spoke to me so clearly about His intentions toward His people, even when we sin. He loves us so dearly. Matthew 8:16-17 tells us Jesus healed our sickness to fulfill Isaiah 53:4. Let’s also read a little further in Isaiah 53 to hear what Jesus has accomplished for us because of His great love for us!

Matthew 8:16-17
That evening many demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus. He cast out the evil spirits with a simple command, and he healed all the sick. This fulfilled the word of the Lord through the prophet Isaiah, who said [in Isaiah 53:4], “He took our sicknesses and removed our diseases.”

Isaiah 53:4-6
Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins!
But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.
All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all.

He took our sickness in His body so we can be well. I don’t believe this is just speaking to our physical sicknesses but also to emotional and spiritual sickness as well. Sin is anything we do that separates us from God. When we sin, we become spiritually sick. But that is not the end of the story. James 5:13-18 tells us a little about this issue.

James 5:13-18 [emphasis mine]
Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven. Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops.

You see, James tells us that we will be healed when we are sick if our sins are forgiven. How are our sins forgiven? Confession! What exactly is confession? It is owning up to our own failings, asking God to forgive us, and then walking in God’s grace. It does not require groveling and weeping and pouring over our sin. It is my belief that the world does not want the Jesus we have to offer because of the way we present Jesus to them. It seems that there is a disconnect in this message of confession. No one wants to join a group of people who are judgmental when they see someone sin and then that person doesn’t immediately put on sackcloth and ashes while sitting around groaning “Woe is me! I am not worthy. Please forgive me. I have failed you. Help me live right.”

When we present the message that forgiveness is offered freely when we admit our failings and then walk in that forgiveness, the faith is a much more easily attainable faith to walk in. This is the gospel message and I want you to know today that this is the true message God is sending us. While searching the scriptures and praying this morning, I felt Him speak gently into my soul that He wants people to know that His desire is to heal people, not just physically the way I need healing today, but also spiritually. You see, I know that I need a spiritual healing every day because I was born with the sin nature. I have to come to Him daily. And He heals me spiritually and sets my feet on solid ground to walk with Him freely.

Isaiah 57:18a
I have seen what they do, but I will heal them anyway! I will lead them.

You see, God knows our sin. But His desire is to heal us and lead us anyway! That word spoke such love to me this morning. He reminded me that no matter what I do, He loves me. And He loves you no matter what, too!

Psalm 73:26
My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever.

You see that even David, the king who had an affair with Bathsheba and then had her husband put on the front lines to be killed, came back to God and declared that God is the strength of His heart. I echo that this morning in my physical sickness because I know that I am weak, and yet, God is strong in me! But as I echoed this about my physical sickness, I began to echo this regarding my spiritual weakness. I am weak without God’s strength in my life. Let God be your strength today!

I would like to conclude with an encouragement to you from God’s word.

John 16:33 [Jesus speaking]
I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”

Romans 8:37-39
No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In His Grace!

The Pruning

John 15:1-8 (NLT)

¹“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. ²He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. ³You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. ⁴Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.  ⁵“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. ⁷But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! ⁸When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.

As I read these verses out of John 15, a word picture began to develop. Earlier this week I noticed that my peace lily was looking really bad. It had a lot of leaves that were either dead or beginning to die. I knew that I needed to prune it to keep the entire plant from dying. We have had this plant so long that it is like one of our babies.

This is not just some ordinary peace lily that I purchased to liven up our home. We got this peace lily from my husband’s grandfather’s funeral seventeen or eighteen years ago. There have been many times over the years that I just knew it was on its last leg and we would have to lay it to rest; but every time it looked like that, I took care to prune it back. This involves cutting off every leaf with even the slightest discoloration on it. Of course I cut off all of the leaves that are obviously dead, but I also cut off any leaf that is half-brown. I don’t stop there. If the leaf looks a little yellow, I cut it off. If it looks like the tip is getting brown, I cut it off.

By the time I finish pruning the peace lily, there are usually only about ten to fifteen good leaves left. The pot looks huge compared to the size of the plant, but it’s not what I can see on the outside that really matters. What matters is the well-established root system. You see, the roots are strong enough that when I cut off the dead leaves, the roots can produce new tender shoots that spring up into a beautiful plant. Every time I have pruned the plant back like this, it always ends up looking beautiful. But alas, life happens, we forget to water the plant, forget to prune the sucker leaves, forget the plant exists, and we end up with the sickly plant that I was faced with this week.

Wednesday I decided to prune the plant. I carefully removed every bad leaf that I could. This left us with a tiny plant in a huge pot. The most amazing thing happened, though. When my hubby arrived home from work that night, he sat down on the couch, looked over at the plant and exclaimed, “Oh, wow, you trimmed the plant. That really looks much better.” You see, even though it looked pitiful in size, it already looked healthier. Amazingly, I looked at the plant this morning, and there are already six new tender shoots. I also noticed two leaves that were starting to turn brown, and the stalk that they are attached to have not produced any new leaves.

You see, this experience with the plant is a perfect picture of John 15. Verse 2 reminds us that He cuts off the branches in us that do not bear fruit, but this principal doesn’t stop there. Verses 4-5 remind us that once we are pruned, we must remain in Christ in order to produce fruit just as I must continue to care for the plant daily. I have to check to make sure all of the leaves are healthy so I can cut out anything that has any unhealthy area. When I do so, the rest of the leaves will thrive. When I don’t take care of the unhealthy leaves, they will choke out the healthy leaves that remain.

Without Him, we cannot accomplish anything. When we do not live for Him, verse 6 tells us that we are as useless as the branch that has been cut off to wither, gather into a pile and burn. Remember the leaves I removed from the peace lily? I threw them away. If I were to look at them now, they would certainly be withered. If there were enough of the dead leaves, it would be a worthwhile endeavor to pile them all up and burn them.

Another amazing principle found in John 15 is that when we allow Him to prune us as we truly follow Him daily, especially when we have been wandering out on our own, He begins to clean us up! Just like our peace lily that showed a marked, physical improvement as noted by my hubby after the severe pruning job, God makes our external lives look better when we follow Him and allow Him to prune our lives. Sure we may not have all of the fruit in our lives just as our peace lily now looks smaller, but His fruit will begin to grow and shine in our lives as we follow Christ. Let’s walk with Him today!

In His Grace!