In the Hands of the Vinedresser

The second day of the three-day fast has always been the hardest for me. While this tends to be the most difficult it is also the most fruitful. It is during the second day that the body tends to make its demands for food more pronounced. Every scent, picture, and advertisement on your television seems to have sided with your body and is waging an assault on your mind as if the body it convinced it is in the jaws of death. Few victories are sweeter though than those where you choose to nourish the Spirit rather than the flesh. Make no mistake, it is no mere grit that will guarantee victory. Your preparation on day 1 of the fast and the grace of God will strengthen you. Just because something is painful does not mean it isn’t fruitful. In John 15 Jesus is called the true vine, and his father the Vinedresser (John 15:1). He goes on to say that we must abide in him to bear fruit (John 15:4) but there is a peculiar statement made in verse 2 that I want to draw your attention to; the Vinedresser prunes us.

Admittedly, I don’t believe we’re all very eager about the prospect of God’s pruning in our lives. It is a necessary and good thing for our spiritual growth though. If you have committed to praying and fasting with us these three days, you are no doubt demonstrating the fruit of self-control (Gal 5:23) and if bearing fruit then promised to be pruned to bear even more. In humility and in weakness then as the second day of the fast dawns, we seek the sustaining power of God for the journey through prayer and praise, through reading and mediation on the Word of the Living God. We should not enter this lightly knowing full well that every fiber of our flesh will be screaming for satisfaction. Let us then lend our hearts to the pruning of our Heavenly Father. May He cut away everything that distracts and divides our attention from Him. As we go about the second day of fasting have no misconceptions that it will be an easy journey. No full well that the denial of the flesh is the strengthening of the Spirit of God in you if you fortify yourself with the Scriptures and spend your newfound time in prayer. Run to the heavenly Vinedresser, the Father who loves us so that He sent His son. Perhaps we focus far too much on the hand doing the pruning and far too little on the other hand that holds us in the process.