Andrew Murray's Daily Meditations
He Purgeth It
“Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.”
Mark the strange tenderness of the husbandman. The fruitful branch is the one he prunes. The cutting falls not on the dead wood — that he removes entirely — but on the branch that is alive and bearing. He cuts because it is alive, and that it may bear more.
This is the meaning of much that has perplexed you. You were following him; you were bearing fruit; and then the knife came. Some pleasant thing was taken away. Some plan failed. Some friend left. Some strength departed. You said, Has he forsaken me? — and he was at that moment working most carefully upon you.
Trust the Husbandman. He knows the branch. He sees what would have hindered its yield. The pruning is for more fruit, not for less. And the gardener who tends his vine with such care will not let one cut go beyond what is needed.
From The True Vine