Wednesday with Words: The Pruning Knife

So, I was debating on whether or not I would share more from Sinclair Ferguson with you this week, or if I would quote Plato.

 

I didn’t want to scare anyone off by quoting Plato, so Sinclair Ferguson won.   J   Besides, his writings have greatly encouraged me in the past couple of weeks with some of the very issues that I have been wrestling with.  Perhaps these thoughts will be an encouragement to you as well?

 

“Finally, we are called, as part of the abiding process, to submit to the pruning knife of God in the providences by which He cuts away all disloyalty and sometimes all that is unimportant, in order that we might remain in Christ all the more wholeheartedly.

 

In the horticultural world, pruning generally is done with a view to long-term faithfulness.  So with believers – the Father prunes the branches of the vine in order that they may yield more fruit.  Of course, there often seems to be an apparent randomness in His cutting, but there is never a wasted stroke – every cut is necessary for us to ‘bear more fruit’ (John 15:2).  In Christ, we are safe under the Father’s pruning knife.”

 

                        ~Sinclair Ferguson, In Christ Alone