I have grown apple, pear and peach trees for years and enjoyed the fruit they bear. It was a constant challenge however, growing fruit from those trees. There were diseases that attacked them. Ants loved those trees, as did multiple other insects. They had to be sprayed regularly and pruned annually. Of course, bees were necessary to pollinate them; rain, sun, and regular feeding to grow them. It’s any wonder with all the work there was any fruit at all. 

I had one other hazard to look out for with my fruit trees in particular–our yellow labrador retriever, Maggie. She loved picking the low hanging fruit. When it was green, she had endless fun playing with those “balls.” When it was ripe, she grabbed her daily share to lay down on our picnic bench and devour them. 

Without all the work there was no fruit, or at best, low quality fruit. But work should yield good fruit, right? The concept of growing fruit is found in the Bible. Jesus spoke about it and He verified that His Father was a fruit grower as well. In John chapter 15 Jesus shared that He cuts off branches which no longer produce fruit. No fruit can be born without a connection to the tree. Jesus taught that He is the vine and we are the branches. Apart from Jesus, we cannot produce fruit. 

Further, He taught us about pruning or cutting the tree back so it can give more of its energy into growing fruit. It took me years to develop the concept of a proper pruning of a fruit tree. I can still recall one older gentleman who said, “After you cut the tree back, return to it and prune it again.” The tree looks pretty bare and hopeless to produce anything. 

When Paul the Apostle was writing to the Galatian church he mentioned “fruit of the Spirit” and then listed them as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. While God’s pruning of us as His branches is not painless, it serves a very clear purpose: producing fruit in our lives and ridding us of “the sinful nature desires” that are “contrary to the Spirit.” Like pruning a fruit tree to produce larger, sweeter, and more inviting fruit, our heavenly Father is pruning us so we can produce good and attractive fruit from our lives.

Your heavenly Father is a gentle vine dresser, but purposeful. He knows exactly where to operate, how deep to cut, and how much to sever. Grant Him permission to cut off the unfruitful desires of the flesh so He can grow His fruit of the Spirit in your life, “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” (See Galatians 5:16-26.)