August 1 Pruned to Yield Fruit<\/p>\n
“And every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit” (John 15:2).<\/p>\n
A child of God was dazed by the variety of afflictions which seemed to make her their target. Walking past a vineyard in the rich autumnal glow she noticed the untrimmed appearance and the luxuriant wealth of leaves on the vines, that the ground was given over to a tangle of weeds and grass, and that the whole place looked utterly uncared for; and as she pondered, the Heavenly Gardener whispered so precious a message that she would fain pass it on:<\/p>\n
“My dear child, are you wondering at the sequence of trials in your life? Behold that vineyard and learn of it. The gardener ceases to prune, to trim, to harrow, or to pluck the ripe fruit only when he expects nothing more from the vine during that season. It is left to itself, because the season of fruit is past and further effort for the present would yield no profit. Comparative uselessness is the condition of freedom from suffering. Do you then wish me to cease pruning your life? Shall I leave you alone?” And the comforted heart cried, “No!”
\n–Homera Homer-Dixon<\/p>\n
It is the branch that bears the fruit,
\nThat feels the knife,
\nTo prune it for a larger growth,
\nA fuller life.<\/p>\n
Though every budding twig be lopped,
\nAnd every grace
\nOf swaying tendril, springing leaf,
\nBe lost a space.<\/p>\n
O thou whose life of joy seems reft,
\nOf beauty shorn;
\nWhose aspirations lie in dust,
\nAll bruised and torn,<\/p>\n
Rejoice, tho’ each desire, each dream,
\nEach hope of thine
\nShall fall and fade; it is the hand
\nOf Love Divine<\/p>\n
That holds the knife, that cuts and breaks
\nWith tenderest touch,
\nThat thou, whose life has borne some fruit
\nMay’st now bear much.
\n–Annie Johnson Flint<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
August 1 Pruned to Yield Fruit<\/p>\n
“And every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit” (John 15:2).<\/p>\n
A child of God was dazed by the variety of afflictions which seemed to make her their target. Walking past a vineyard in the rich autumnal glow she noticed the untrimmed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8],"class_list":["post-44000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-streams","tag-streams-in-the-desert","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellsofgrace.com\/devotion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellsofgrace.com\/devotion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellsofgrace.com\/devotion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellsofgrace.com\/devotion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellsofgrace.com\/devotion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wellsofgrace.com\/devotion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44000\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellsofgrace.com\/devotion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellsofgrace.com\/devotion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellsofgrace.com\/devotion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}