I would imagine that up until this point, whenever God would come into the Garden Adam and Eve would run to meet Him like excited children. But when they harbored unconfessed sin in their hearts, His coming was a dreaded event. The thought of His presence was terrifying.
Adam and Eve were overlooking the single greatest truth in the universe! God loved them! He loved them in their sin so much that He sought them out! He did not leave them quivering in fear, devastated by guilt and saturated in sin. He came. “But the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?'” (Gen. 3:9, NIV).
God knew exactly where Adam and Eve were. He was not calling them to get information but confession. He wanted them to confront what they had done so they could set it right and be restored in fellowship with Himself. And where are you? Instead of hiding from God, would you run to Him? Confess your sin and enjoy reconciliation with Him.
You and I can trust the Gardener to skillfully, personally, lovingly, and effectively prune the “vines” of our lives. Isaiah described the gentle skillfulness of His touch when he revealed, “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out” (Isa. 42:3, NIV). In other words, God will not cut you back so much that you are broken beyond the ability to grow, nor will He quench you to the point that you give up and quit. So trust Him. He’s been pruning for years. He knows what He’s doing.
While cutting is drastic and encourages new growth, clipping is used mainly to control and shape the growth of the plant. This encourages fruitfulness by concentrating the energy of the vine into the fruitful areas of the branch. The Gardener clips even a fruitful branch, as Jesus described: “Every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”
“I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred” (John 5:7, NIV). The man beside the pool of Bethesda was focused on what he lacked. He lacked a friend to help him. He lacked the strength to do it on his own. But while he was preoccupied with what he didn’t have, he totally missed what he did have-he had Jesus! Standing right there!
What’s your excuse for continuing to lie down on your responsibilities? What’s your excuse for remaining a spiritual child when you should be mature in your faith? What’s your excuse for sleeping when you should be kneeling in prayer? What’s your excuse?
Is it lack of faith? Lack of willpower? Lack of knowledge? Lack of discipline? Lack of energy? There is no excuse you or I can come up with that is valid because we have Jesus!
Why is it that Christians go running around, measuring the abundance of each other’s fruit as well as their own, reading books on fruitfulness, going to seminars about greater fruitfulness, when it’s really not their concern? Before you start to protest, let me assure you I desire with all of my heart to bear much fruit for the glory of God.
But the fruit in my life is His concern, not mine. My concern is to make sure of three things: that as a potential fruit-bearing branch, I am connected to the Vine and keep that connection clean and unobstructed; that I submit to the cultivation of the Vinedresser, which primarily involves His pruning in my life; and that I communicate with Him my heart’s desire.
“On the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat” (Gen. 8:4, NIV). When Noah first gazed out of the window, drinking in the warmth of the sunshine and breathing the clean, fresh air, it must have looked like he was on an island in the midst of a vast lake with the tops of the mountains looking like other islands in the sea. But as the water continued to recede, what did he think when he realized he was on top of a mountain range seventeen thousand feet high?
As Noah became aware of the gradual yet drastic changes taking place in his circumstances, he must have feared what they would mean to his everyday life. He was an old man to be starting out in a new job requiring a new home and a totally new environment. But like the psalmist, Noah knew he should “wait for the Lord and keep his way.” He had to keep trusting that the same God Who had saved him from the storm of judgment that had “cut off” the wicked would enable him to inherit the “land” of his new life.
