prayer for pruning

Heavenly Father,

You've chosen to be the one who not only created us, but tends to us. Like a shepherd and a gardener, you care for your people. Like sheep, we run away and like a shepherd you come after us.

Like bushes and tree, we grow extra stuff that doesn't belong there. So you cut us back so we can be healthy and continue to grow.

But it hurts. Pruning hurts.

God, help us to accept the pruning for what it is: love. Your loving and tender care is about our best, not about what feels good. Help us remember that you are for us, and you want what's best. And so you prune so we can bear fruit.

Amen.

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.  Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:1-5)

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