When God Prunes Your Tree

 

As you may have noticed by local produce in the supermarkets, it is peach season. We have a beautiful peach tree in our yard, but every time it starts to bloom, a frost comes out of nowhere and kills the buds. This year, our tree still produced a handful of peaches. The issue is ants and bugs. Even though the fruit grows, bugs sneak into the fruit and destroy the fruit from the inside out. Let's just say that taking a bite of a peach directly off the tree will result in a little extra protein in the form of a tiny worm. Another one of our fruit trees developed a fungus. It started small on one branch. We noticed that the branch was failing to thrive and eventually died. We thought cutting off the affected limb would be enough, but we waited too long to deal with it. Eventually, the whole tree was covered in fungus and rotting. Because there was no recovery from this, we had no choice but to cut down the tree, lest it spread to our other fruit trees. This made me understand a scripture in Matthew better. 

Matt 7:19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 

We live in a world surrounded by the "anything goes" mentality. But without straightforward right and wrong, our world will become broken, selfish, and dark. Each of us produces fruit in our lives. Peace, love, kindness, and self-control are a few of the good fruits. However, when we focus our lives on only pleasing ourselves, we give room for bitterness, anger, and selfish to rot us from the inside out. When I worked in a nursing home, as the patients got old and lost brain function, you could see those that had bitterness in their lives. They were very unhappy and negative. The best way to prevent the rot is simply letting God remove the stuff that creates rot in your life. As God takes away the bad attitudes, complaining, and whatever else you feel He wants to remove, your tree begins to produce good things. So inspect your tree, is there something that needs to change? Ask God and be willing to let Him remove the rot. 

Have a great week high-heeled warriors!