Do Not Stunt Your Growth

 

I knew God had given me revelation about the trajectory of my spiritual life in a recent dream I had. With prayer, wisdom, discernment, and obedience, I am allowing myself to be trimmed and uprooted by my Heavenly Father. When God decides to uproot you, it means He’s about to plant you in new soil! It’s not easy being uprooted but it’s for our benefit.

The season of pruning is where God wants to trim off any excess or trim off dead things. Pruning is not fun in my opinion, but it is very beneficial. Just think about how a tree, plant, or shrubbery looks like after they’ve been pruned…they look a little bare! When we lived in my grandma’s house, there was a crape myrtle tree I liked very much. Every now and then, my Dad would say, “we gotta prune it soon”. I would ask him why and he would respond, “so it could continue to bloom, it’s a little overgrown”. I used to think that doesn’t make sense because it’s already blooming in all its glory. If it gets trimmed, it will look unattractive or not as beautiful. Sometimes, he would respond by turning my attention to some dead areas that need to be trimmed off. I could see why we needed to remove the dead areas but not remove the overgrown areas. But you know what, I was proved wrong every time! The crape myrtle was beautiful every year!

Just as my Dad was focused on growth of the crape myrtle, so is our Heavenly Father focused on our growth. Sometimes, we don’t understand or see the reason for pruning but remember, God sees the big picture. He deposits the Holy Spirit in our lives not only as the promised Helper but to direct us in all Truth. Our Heavenly Father wants to trim off any overgrown and dead areas in our lives. When we get too overgrown, we start going beyond where God wants us to be or walk in what we think His will is for our lives. Sometimes, we might get too full of ourselves, become prideful, and forget it was God that brought us to where we are. We can become less humble and more boastful in ourselves.

 When we have dead areas in our lives, we are holding on to what was instead of what is or what will be. God does not want us to focus on the past, He wants us to focus on Him, being present with Him, and having hope in the sure future He has for us. Sometimes, even without thinking, we resurrect the dead things in our lives that God has buried. Sometimes, we walk away from the Truth of God and not allow His Holy Spirit to work in our lives. If we allow the dead areas to stay in our lives, eventually everything will become dead. There is no growth happening when we are overgrown or dead. This is why it’s important to let our Heavenly Father trim us off! When we are overgrown and dead, we are not bearing fruit.

Sometimes, God decides to uproot us and plant us in new soil. There could nothing wrong with the soil or us, but God wants to continue blooming us so we can walk in His will for our lives. Remember, His plans are to prosper us so to be prosperous, sometimes it might require being uprooted and replanted. Other times, God wants to uproot us because the soil in which we’re planted is no longer beneficial for our growth. To grow us and make us more fruitful, He must replant us. Sometimes, we plant or uproot ourselves without God’s direction and He must uproot or replant us. Sometimes, He has uprooted us out of a soil, but we keep putting roots in the same soil or similar soil. In any of these above, He must uproot and replant us for us to grow and become fruitful. Are you picking up what I’m laying down? Being uprooted and replanted is very beneficial to our spiritual growth! What is God saying to you right now about your spiritual growth? Where is He leading you? Are you listening?

 

Warm Wishes,

Carline

 

Scripture references:

Matthew 15: 1-13

John 15: 1-8

Hebrews 12: 5-11