Pruning: His Providential Dealings

God will often increase the holiness of true Christians by His providential dealings with them. 

• "Every branch that bears fruit, He prunes, 
• that it may bear more fruit."

The meaning of this language is clear and plain.  

• Just as the gardener prunes and cuts back the branches of a fruitful vine, in order to make them more fruitful, 
• so does God purify and sanctify me by the circumstances of life in which He places me.

Trial, to speak plainly, is the instrument 

• by which my Father in heaven makes me more holy.  
• By trial He calls out my passive graces, 
• and proves whether I can suffer His will as well as do it.  

By trial 

• He weans me from the world, 
• draws me to Christ, 
• drives me to the Bible and prayer, 
• shows me my own heart, 
• and makes me humble.  

This is the process by which He "prunes" me, and makes me more fruitful.  

• The lives of the saints in every age, are the best and truest comment on the text.  
• Never, hardly, do I find an eminent saint, either in the Old Testament or the New, 
• who was not purified by suffering, and, like His Master, a "man of sorrows."

Let me learn to be patient in the days of darkness, 

• if I know anything of vital union with Christ.  
• Let me remember the doctrine of "pruning" 
• and not murmur and complain because of trials.  

My trials are not meant to do me harm, but good.  

• God chastens me "for my profit, that I may be a partaker of His holiness." (Hebrews 12:10)  
• Fruit is the thing that my Master desires to see in me, 
• and He will not spare the pruning knife if He sees I need it.  

In the last day I shall see that all was well done.

Adapted Excerpt From The Gospel of John by J. C. Ryle