Tag: spirituality

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Setting Sails and Pruning Rosebushes: Allowing The Process So You can Grow

“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.” John 15:1-2 NIV

I am truly having a case of déjà vu today!!!! I either dreamed I wrote this devotion because I searched through all the ones on my blog and I cannot find them!! (UPDATE: success! I found the original devotion I wrote on this topic…you can see it here:https://lifeinspiredbygod.com/2010/11/13/daily-devotion-161/ and see this one too: https://lifeinspiredbygod.com/2009/12/22/daily-devotion-107/) Anyway…I wish I could shout to you how much this scripture means to me. Look at the screenshot below from my vision board:

In the bottom left there is a picture of pruning shears. God gave me revelation on some of the things I want–true companionship with my future husband and doing everything He put me here to do while I’m on Earth–and it was this very picture that spoke to me the most. I had to be pruned–pruned of negative attitudes, old habits and bad behaviors, fear, doubt, worry–everything that sought to keep me from God’s blessings. I thought about this yesterday as I talked with one of my friends about how my recent loss of friends (rather, God’s pruning me of them as I realized, His removing them from my life) had made me feel. I honestly know this was God’s will, because one of the persons was genuinely not happy about what God had chosen to do in my life, and the other…well I don’t know about him lol.

Pruning as Jesus relays above, prepares you for more growth. Dang, it just hit me. PRUNING prepares you for more growth. It is a part of the process, you cannot truly grow unless you have been thoroughly pruned. I remember being outside with my daddy growing up, and he was pulling the old rose blossoms off the vine. It was then that he said you have to pull off the dead blooms so more can grow (Thanks Daddy!!). I never fully understood that concept until now…things that had once blossomed in your life and have since died, it has shed its leaves and dried up–it cannot grow anymore! It can no longer be that beautiful rose you once saw. It now barely, if at all, resembles the beautiful blossom it once was. Life has been sucked out of it, and if it is not removed or doesn’t fall off, it can leach the lifeblood from the remaining vine and nearby buds.

It dawned on me yesterday and it was confirmed today in talking to one of my friends (thanks Shawnda): sometimes we have to stop clinching these things and people so tightly–especially in the process of being prepared because God has to work on us now. How can you experience that increase or receive those blessings if you will not allow God to take away the thorns–those things about you that make you less than appealing to others at times? Ladies, would you rather have a thorny bouquet with some dead buds or a dozen (or more) long-stemmed roses? And fellas, be forewarned lol thorny roses are not necessarily the best gift, so don’t go picking roses off someone’s bush! (just kidding, but really don’t do that) They both smell great, but to enjoy the latter you must accept the pain that comes with it because it is a part of the nature of that flower. (Yeah that one was for me lol) HOW can you honestly expect to be able to sail to the next destination with the anchor still stuck in the bed of the harbor? You have to allow that pruning process–but take it from me, do it with open hands because it sure does hurt to be pruned and have things snatched out of your grasp! You are in a season where you are being prepared and to prepare for that next harvest, the weeds, brambles, sticks, stones, and parasites must be eradicated! Ask yourself, who IS sucking the life out of you???

Until next time: allow the process and think how much better you will look after it is over!

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. John 15:7-8 NIV

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Following After His Voice: A Lesson in Obedience

The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. Genesis 12:1

I know it’s been quite a while since I last wrote. Lately, I’ve been posting my ‘devotions’ directly on Facebook. But today, I felt the need to write and share a little testimony.

Among the many things God has led me to do in my life, there are two things that weigh heavy on my heart, and the most current is my having to leave home and everything I know to move to New Orleans. You see, since the day I set foot back in South Carolina, I was stricken in virtually every area of my life. I commonly refer to the last 4 years I spent at home as my ‘wilderness experience.’ During that period of my life, I learned so many things, but I think the most paramount of those lessons were to have faith and trust God unrelentlessly.

So trust I did. I sought God about His desires for every area of my life–career, ministry, family, love, etc. This journey has brought me to this place, like Abraham (or Abram at the time) where I have had to leave everything I know and love behind: a brand new niece that has filled some of the voids in my heart, friends that have become family and their children that are my own nieces and nephews now, and my family. I knew I had no desire of staying in Charleston or even South Carolina for that matter, but that did not make leaving any less hard. I even left the place I feel is my true home, Atlanta, leaving some of the same things there, and I’m certain after this part of my journey, I’ll get back there.

Sometimes in life we are faced with those not so easy decisions: to follow our dreams and take the road less traveled, leading to ultimate fulfillment in Christ or to sacrifice those dreams and ignore our appointed purposes to remain comfortable. Trust me, there is nothing easy packing your whole life up and driving your packed to capacity truck, dog in tow, to a ‘foreign land.’ I knew no one here other than my linesister Ashley, my two uncles, and a little cousin. I left what I had grown accustomed to over the last four years, having everyone I love in a near vicinity and driving distance.

And today, this morning, I cried because my heart was heavy over having to leave them behind. Then God reminded me of Abraham. Abraham is the father of many nations, and right here in Genesis 12:1 is when God calls him away to become that very person! God spoke to me and reminded me of this, that I too, had to leave ‘home’ (Charleston, Columbia, SC, Atlanta) to go to a place that He had shown me, so that He can continue shaping me into the woman He called me to be. Like Abraham, I had to leave my appointed place (I believe, Atlanta) to go somewhere to be enriched (Abram leaves Canaan quickly after arriving and goes to Egypt–Genesis 12–and I will say with certainty that my time in Charleston definitely enriched me). Not once during his journey did Abraham doubt–yes, he got impatient and tried to make things happen his own way…and YES I’ve done that too, much to my discomfort in the end. Abraham–what God names Abram after He changes Abram’s name and reaffirms His promises in the covenant–gets to a place of rest in God’s word to him, that he quickly obeys from thereafter. Even in fear (he feared he would be killed for Sarai/Sarah because of her beauty both in Egypt and in Abimelech’s territory), God blesses Abraham. And upon Abraham’s return to his ‘home’–for him it is Canaan–God fulfills His promises to Abraham. Even greater than that, God has increased Abraham tremendously throughout his journey both in material wealth and in faith.

So I will be at ease, because not only did God bless Abraham’s end, but He blessed His entire journey! So I will remain encouraged and stay focused, because God wants to bless some people through me! (Gen 12:3) At this point, I have too much to lose, and life without God’s hand steering me is not really life at all…be blessed!

“I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” So Abram left, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran. Genesis 12:2-4 NIV