It hurts
To be pruned,
Cut back
And fine tuned,
But it makes room
For great fruit.

Pruned trees look bad,
But not for long.
They come back
With a life-flowing song.

If we won’t let God
Prune our pride,
We’ll decide
To refuse Him
As our guide.

To prepare the way
Of the Lord,
We must allow Him
To cut away
Anything in us
That's in His way.

When God is pruning
Your life,
It goes better
If you stop assuming
You can tell Him
How to do it.

When you let God prune,
You might not sing
A happy tune,
But you'll soon
Experience new life.

When pruned
Of pride,
You’re free
To let God
Be your inside
Guide.

Lotsa pruning
Means lotsa fruit
Is on its way.

Pruning shifts our confidence away from self so we can trust more in God and experience more of His fruit and less of our own effort. When you’re resisting God’s pruning in your life, you’re quenching the Holy Spirit.

All growth isn’t good. Pruning cuts back harmful growth to make room for fruitful growth to prosper. It’s easier to be the pruner than the prunee–to try to prune other people instead of letting God prune you.

God wants to prune and cut back your human nature to make room for His presence inside you so He can grow His fruit in your life. Without God’s pruning, you won’t be spiritually blooming. When you feel like God has pruned you to your limit and you’re a shrub of nubs, you’re primed for some vibrant spiritual growth.

Surrendering to God’s pruning is a necessary process for spiritual growth. Without it, Bible knowledge is unfruitful. When you yield to God’s pruning, you’ll experience much fruit of the Spirit. When you don’t, you won’t.

God’s pruning in your life is purposeful. He’s the Master Gardner. Trust Him while He’s working on you. By faith you can watch God prune your life with hope and not despair.

The reason for God’s pruning in your life is to improve the quality of spiritual fruit, not to cause you strife. It’s hard to find the fruit of the Spirit in an unpruned Christian. When the body of Christ is unpruned, there’s a fruit of the Spirit famine.

“Winsome” means “cheerful.”
Even when you lose,
You can still choose
To be winsome.

You win some
And you lose some,
But either way
Keep a winsome smile
All the while.