"God Doesn't Cut You Off, He Lifts You Up."

"God Doesn't Cut You Off, He Lifts You Up."

John 15:1-4
I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bare fruit, he takes away. And every branch that does bare fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the words I have spoken to you. Abide me and I and you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.
  I heard Joyce Meyer preach on this one time she read verse two. “Every branch that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that does bare fruit, he prunes so that it will bear more fruit.” Then she said this, “So it looks to me as if we are pruned if we do and pruned if we don’t.” That was so funny to me. A couple of months ago I was reading this particular scripture and the phrase “he takes away” caught my eye. I did a word study and found out that in the Greek the phrase meant to lift up. What a lightbulb moment that was for me. So I dug a little deeper. And I found out that as  the branches began to grow in the vineyard, those branches would become very heavy, and they would fall down into the dirt, and the sun could not get to them and they would not bare fruit so the vineyard keeper would come and lift up the branch so that it could get sun and bear fruit. Can I just tell you? It gives me great joy that in those times of my life when I am just going through some things, That my papa God does not just take me away or cut me off, but he lifts me up to the Son. Now we all  go through seasons when the heaviness of this life  brings us down, but please be encouraged, God will always lift us up. Here’s the key. Verse 4. As the branch cannot bare fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. So here’s my take. When we’re down and out, God‘s gonna lift us up. When we’re bearing fruit, he’s gonna prune things off of us that need to be pruned off so that we can bear more fruit. So in order to constantly grow in Christ, we need to always abide in him. So Joyce Meyer was right! We’re pruned if we do and we’re pruned if we don’t. Be blessed today in the mighty name of Jesus.