What happens when we do not allow God to prune us, fighting against the lessons He has for us is mentioned in Isaiah.
Isaiah 5:6:
"I will lay it waste; It will not be pruned or hoed, But briars and thorns will come up I will also charge the clouds to rain no rain on it."
John 15:2 ""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."
If you are resisting the lessons God has for you out of pride, then you will not bear more fruit, in fact the fruit you have will be small and beggarly because of the pride that impedes the growth.
Not all good things need to stay in our lives, sometimes even the good things that hinder the growth of the better things must be removed.
Roses must be fed to grow large and beautiful, the proper food must be given along with the proper amount of water. Our spiritual life is like that too, we must be pruned, fed and watered to be able to grow spiritually. Our food is the Word of God and our water is the Holy Spirit.
When we do not take care to learn from the difficulties of life, continually warding off everything we don't like for the purpose of personal comfort, we will find our rose garden becoming spindly and the flowers small and sickly. The bitterness and anger will envelop us, destroying whatever spirituality remains.
In order to grow in holiness, we must be faced with life challenges, our spiritual muscles cannot become strong when we run away from or deny every challenge through resistance to learning. We must allow God to cut out of our lives those that impede the growth while allowing in our lives those who would challenge and feed us.
When we fail the tests of life, becoming more bitter, angry and fruitless, we regress into an attitude that leads to self righteousness. God will stop His spiritual blessing of holiness and growth until we confess our pride and submit once again to Him.
James 1:2-8 "2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.
7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;
8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways."
Our best friends are not those who divert our attention from Christ, using the manipulation of flattery to keep us close to them, but rather those who tell us the truth, no matter how hard something is to hear, it is spoken to challenge us to greater holiness. Those that avoid these challenges, becoming angry at others for them, will remain spiritual babies, if they are born again at all.
The devil uses evil to try to harm us, attempting to ruin our witness by keeping us in a one down position, however, God uses his ploys to hone us, making us stronger if our focus is Christ.
Genesis 50:20 ""As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive."
When we see someone becoming more angry and bitter over the years when challenges face them, we can be sure that is someone whose focus has not been Christ but rather their own version of self righteousness. These people have been focusing on how good they think they can be in their own power rather than seeking Christ to change them. Their pride is too great to admit they need change, they often can never admit to others their failings, they think they don't have any. How could they hear an unseen God when they will not listen to God's messengers.
Seek the Lord to become the person He can make of you, instead of trying to be good in your own strength. Ask Him to prune from your life dead branches (works) and superficial spirituality and replace it with the work that only Christ can do in us.
Ephesians 2:10 "10 For we are HIS WORKMANSHIP, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."
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