1 John 3:2 NLT
'Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is.'
You are composed of three interlocking aspects, which affects who you are. Some factors that have affected your life you had no control over – for example, you did not select your parents. As you grew, you became increasingly complicit in the decisions that directly affected you – for example, you chose friends and took decisions on how you treated them. The third aspect, like a seed awaiting germination, is the essence of who God created you to be, which we spend a lifetime choosing how much to explore.
Over time, we run into the consequences of choices made for us as well as those we make for ourselves. Some are positively detrimental to my realising the God essence within me. These choices lay the soil within which this Godseed was expected to both grow and flourish. The soil itself was not naturally full of the nutrients necessary for a fruitful life.
We are created to wait on God so that we might learn how best to lay aside the realities of previous decisions opposed to the work of God in our lives. This involves bringing my perceptions, attitudes and habits under the rule of God’s testing. We wait on God, the Master Gardener (John 15), sometimes in frustration, for he knows the seasons to wait and to prune, to ensure we flourish into our future.
QUESTION: Take time to reflect on decisions that have impacted your life. Where and when has God pruned your life so that you might flourish and become more fruitful?
PRAYER: Help me to trust that your pruning is for my ultimate good.

Released on 31 Mar 2020