Tag: The Lord

John 15: 1-2 ” I am the true vine, and My Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will bear even more fruit.”

The Lord cuts off all the barren branches.  But He also prunes the fruit-bearing branches as to insure greater productivity in the future.  Being cut back and shaped may be uncomfortable at the time…but totally beneficial for what the Lord has in mind for you in the future.

Ezekiel 24: 15-16 ” The Word of the Lord came to me: ‘Son of man, with one blow I am about to take away from you the delight of your eyes. Yet do not lament or weep or shed any tears.”

God’s commandments are sometimes very unique…requiring great inner commitment, not merely external or superficial obedience.  Many times, there was tremendous cost to serving the Lord.  In this verse, God is telling him that He is taking Ezekiel’s dear wife home to heaven, but that he may not mourn her in public.  God instructed Jeremiah never to marry…and the Lord told Hosea to take an unfaithful, adulterous woman as his wife.  In all cases with these men, God symbolically used their situations to demonstrate His relationship with His people and the changes that needed to be made.

Psalm 73: 23-24 ” Yet I am always with You; You hold me by my right hand. You guide me with Your counsel, and afterward You will take me into glory.”

The Lord is always with me…during the good times as well as the bad.  Even when I forget about Him…He’s still there.  He’s as close as my next breath or my next heart beat.  God’s right there to advise and show me His plan and purpose for my life.  And when the waves of life come crashing down on me…I grasp onto His strong right hand…and hold on.