When Is It Pruning?Sample

When is it Pruning?

Day Two– Pruning or discipline?

Let’s understand the difference in the pruning that God does in our life as mentioned in John 15, and the discipline of the Lord, as mentioned in Hebrews 12. Pruning is to help us give over an aspect of our life to God, and to be blessed in return by a greater blessing. Discipline is to help us give up a condition of sin that we hold dear and to be blessed by the removal of this sinful condition in our life.

God’s pruning in our life is because we are doing good and he wants better for us. Discipline is because we are doing something bad, it hinders our fellowship with God, and He wants better for us. Either way, our King wants better for us and we need to allow Him to show us our next step in response. 

When we are going through a trial or breaking experience, it is sometimes hard to know what God is asking us to give up or give over, and we need to do an earnest evaluation of our life to understand our reaction to God’s intervention in our life. So, how can we know what to do? The first reaction is to ask if it is pruning or discipline going on. Seek to know what God is doing or saying to you. If there is no obvious sin that you see, you may be in a pruning process. 

If this is the case, just wait on the Lord to complete His process in you. If there is obvious sin that you are clinging to, you do not have to look much further. He is now focusing your attention on something that offends Him, and you will remain in misery until you give it up. God loves you much too much to allow this condition to remain in your life. It hurts your fellowship with Him, but not so much that He will not love you through it and beyond it. The encouraging result of His discipline of you is mentioned in His word. See for yourself what can come from this discipline:

“For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” (Hebrews 12:11 ESV)

...“the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” Wow!! Whether or not it is pruning or discipline in your life, you can rest assured that Jesus is in your corner and He will help you fight through it and win. He will show you how to win over this. It will require some discipline and deeper trust on your part. But you will stand as victor over your foe if you let Him show you how to win.