"every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes"

I am stuck in John 15.  I feel like I can't move on from this chapter without letting it marinate within me.  It is so very rich.  So much truth, so much revelation about the relationship between God and us.

but as I was reading this same chapter this morning and then again this evening, both times I had to stop at this one part and just let it sink in and understand it as a reality ... "every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes"(verse 2)
 ... now hold up.  It seems to me that if it's bearing bruit, it's doing it's job right?  then why on earth prune it?
but the second part of the verse... "that it may bear more fruit".

the Lord has been showing me recently that He is always longing for more of us.  He is gracious and loving and only shows us as much of ourselves as we can handle in order to change us... but little by little as time moves on he shines more and more light into our lives.... he gives us challenges, sometimes things we don't make complete sense of ... but afterwards we realize we are closer to than ever... and we are doing things that we never would have done before.  how precious is our Lord.

we long to be useful to God ... but this can only happen if we realize how useless we actually are... in this chapter it says "apart from me you can do nothing" (verse 5).
Abiding in Him means never being apart from Him, it is about allowing Him to prune us as He deems necessary, it means trusting Him as our source of life, our source of being.

pruning.....
   .... it's so strange if you think about it.  But it is such a picture of the Lord's work in our lives.  When a tree is pruned, it seems that something, even good, is cut off, but it the end we find something far better.
It is the same in our lives, sometimes the Lord removes even what is good, that we might know that which is better... and that indeed, is our Lord Jesus Christ.
He longs for us to know His closeness and His love, He longs for us to know Himself, His heart and His intentions.  He knows that this way is so far better than any other way, that he will cut off even what may be good in our lives, to achieve this.

...and we so "oh Lord, how could you take this away from me?!"
                       ...and yet how could He not??  He loves us to much! It is His love and mercy that leads Him to take away things in our lives and place us within challenges that seem so difficult, because He knows that through these things we will gain something far better.  We will gain Christ.

Praise the Lord He is all we could ever want and need... He is our full sufficiency, our Help, our Joy, our Eternal Hope.

"These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full" - John 15:11

Do not be discouraged by the many struggles that we face... but know in every one of them, is an opportunity for redemption and a way to draw nearer to our Lord.

Praise His glorious Name. : )