Navigating Change: Following the Footsteps of JesusSample

Let God Prune You

As we follow Jesus to the cross, He’s teaching us how to finish well. We’ve talked about preparation, humility, and maintaining an abundance mentality. Today, we are going to acknowledge that transitional seasons can be some of the best for pruning parts of our lives that are less than fruitful.

On the way to the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus and His disciples probably walked past a vineyard or two. Jesus references these plants in John 15 and says:

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 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 15:1-2 NIV

Jesus, the True Vine, is the perfect representation of the Father, and He is inviting us to join the picture. But being part of that picture requires us to submit the pruning process of the Gardener.

Think of how people shape bushes to look like certain objects or take on different shapes than what’s normal for them when left to their own devices. It’s to the plant’s benefit that it is pruned. The unruliness isn’t just unattractive, it’s unfruitful. The plant actually starts to fight itself.

And here, Jesus is inviting us to humbly submit ourselves to the often painful—but always beneficial—pruning process. To let our Father uproot and cut off the parts of us that have grown ugly and unruly because they are rooted in something less than God’s love.

The Father prunes us to make us more like Jesus. The Father prunes us so we can experience peace with Him and live with purpose.

How do we experience this? Unsurprisingly, we follow the example of Jesus.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. … As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.” John 15:5, 9-10 NIV

We lean into the process of becoming more fruitful by remaining in Jesus. If we are not connected to Him, we will not be fruitful. And we stay connected to Jesus by keeping His commands. Just like Jesus obeyed the Father and remained in His love.

The objection here might be, “Hold on, isn’t that so self-serving of Jesus? To say, ‘If you want to have a fruitful life of intimacy with Me, you have to do what I say?’”

If you have younger siblings you’ve babysat or as a kid, you were given some kind of leadership role over your classmates, you know exactly what power tripping feels like! “Oh, if you want to watch this movie, you have to do what I say. If you want to get extra recess you have to do what I say. And on and on.”

Is Jesus power-tripping? Absolutely not. Again, He never asks us to do something He’s unwilling to do first. The charge to keep His commands comes straight from the mouth of the man who humbled Himself in obedience to the Father—even to the point of death on the cross.

No, what Jesus is doing here is bigger and more beautiful. He’s showing us, by using language that paints a picture in our minds, that the commands of God were always meant to connect us to the heart of God. That every command He gives is an expression of His love and an invitation to intimate connection with His redemptive heart.

What does any of this have to do with navigating change? Well, pressure has a way of exposing the unruly parts of our hearts like nothing else. When we are under pressure and things around us start feeling chaotic, our ego flares up, our past wounds resurface, and the gaps in our character development become obvious.

And this brings us to a moment of decision. Do we submit ourselves to the pruning process, allowing the Father to touch, trim, and take away these parts of our hearts that don’t yet look like Jesus? Or do we hide from Him, ignoring our sometimes glaring deficiencies, only to struggle through the next thing in ways unnecessary if we’d just let God do His thing?

Allow the pressure you experience to drive you into God’s presence and lead you to submit to the pruning process.

Because we all want to live a fruitful life—a life full of purpose and meaning. And we do that by remaining in Jesus. Going where He goes, trusting what He says, doing what He asks, and loving how He loves.

Stop and consider: Are you under pressure? What is that pressure bringing to the surface? Is there a wound, sin, or broken pattern you can bring to the Father? How are you obeying the command of Jesus to love others the way He has loved you? What’s one step of obedience you can take today?