“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. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” (John 15:1-2,4, NIV)
Most good golf instructors give two different types of lessons. The first is a Band-Aid lesson; these are the “quick fix” lessons you give someone about to head out to play who can’t stop hitting duck hooks. It might be given the day before a tournament when a player is slightly off and needs something positive to take with them to the course for the next few days.
The problem with most golfers is that they don’t have the patience and resolve to work through the progression of really getting better.The second type of lesson is focused on real game improvement. Good instructors know that these lessons are given in stages. The teacher can see most of the problems in the student’s swing right off the bat, but can’t fix them in an hour, so he or she works on eliminating the worst habits first and then starts a procedure of rebuilding a better swing over time. After this type of lesson, the player often gets worse and even more frustrated than before—until the process is complete.
The problem with most golfers is that they don’t have the patience and resolve to work through the progression of really getting better. They tend to abandon what they should be working on and look for a quick fix.
Becoming a good player is a process, and it takes lots of time working through the ups and downs with many lessons along the way. Becoming the individual in Christ that God has created you to be is much like golf (only with fewer four-letter words involved), but very few embrace the process that is best for growth.
God’s desire for us is to be triumphant producers of fruit in his kingdom. This takes time. As we learned in Stage 1, we don’t just receive the Holy Spirit and automatically become abundantly productive in God’s work. Instead, we often mistake order for fruit. We find satisfaction in the peace we have gained in Christ and begin ordering our lives in a way that we can manage. There’s nothing wrong with order, but it should never be the goal.
Yet if order isn’t enough, what more can we ask for? The answer is abundance. We will talk about that in the next two stages, but first we must agree that order is not the goal and come down from this false mountaintop into the valley of establishment. In this valley, God begins the process of real fruit production in our lives. He does this by pruning.
As mentioned in today’s verse, God not only cuts off all the branches that do not bear fruit, but he also prunes the ones that do bear fruit. This process is often painful and feels the same as correction, but it’s purpose is much different and necessary for our spiritual growth. The problem for most of us is that we don’t like the pain of pruning and want to reclaim order as quickly as possible. This is where we start asking “why” questions instead of the type of questions God prefers to answer: “what” questions. “What are you teaching me in this situation, Father, and what role do you want me to play in it?”
Instead of embracing God’s process for developing fruitfulness, we too often run from it and ask, “Why me?” The amazing thing about the pruning process of our Heavenly Father is that he only asks us to establish one simple practice of abiding in Jesus. Abiding (remaining) is simply learning to rest in him. He promises not only to do the work, but to give us an upgrade on the other side.
Next time in the Triumph in Rest process: Sacrifice in following Jesus.
—
Josh Nelson
October 25, 2017
Copyright 2017 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
Other devotions in this series:
Stage 1: Beginning with Repentance
Stage 3: Maturity Leads to Sacrifice
Stage 4: Living Eternally