I have a friend that has just recently developed and interest in gardening.  He wants to grow  a wide variety of vegetables and have a large yield from each of them.  He has the hardest time accepting the idea of thinning root vegetables  like carrots, radishes, onions, and beets.  Leaf vegetables like lettuce, cabbage, and chard can also benefit from thinning.  This just doesn’t make sense to him.  How can getting rid of vegetables that are already starting to grow be a good thing?  He had to learn the importance of pruning and thinning.

I also have an ambitious nephew who bought an old apple orchard that hadn’t received any care for many years.  After building his house in the midst, he set about trying to get the orchard to produce.  He consulted an orchardist who said he would have to prune about 1/3 of the branches from each tree including all non-bearing suckers.  While the first year after the severe pruning was supposed to have a limited amount of fruit, the trees were rejuvenated and produced a great crop.  But even then, he was told to remove some of the apples of the largest clumps to produce larger apples.  In doing this, he learned the importance of pruning and thinning.

Eliminating the bad, the useless and the too crowded, will produce excellent and abundant fruit.  2“Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.  And God also says, 17“Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,” says the Lord. “AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN; And I will welcome you. (II Corinthians 6:17)

Prune away the unproductive and separate yourself from the bad, the useless, and the too crowded and you will bear more fruit.  And what kind of fruit will we bear?  22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)

So what about you?  Is it time to be a spiritual farmer?  You can let your life run wild with overcrowding, and non-productive branches and you will still have your garden or orchard, but the fruit will be limited and stunted because 23All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify. I Corinthians 10:23)

You life can be so much more productive with a little pruning and thinning, so check your “garden” and begin to bear more fruit.