What are Divine Devotions? It’s a Journal of sorts.  It’s a place where I ask the Lord to give me guidance on a topic of His choosing and I provide a supplemental message with it. How does it work? I tend to put on my headphones and start to listen to music in the background.  Somehow that actually silences my mind to allow the flow to begin.  Next, I start off taking a few deep breaths, then recite The Lord’s Prayer. I then ask Him to choose a scripture that is most relevant to what He wants me to speak on. I grab my Bible, close my eyes and open to a random page. Whatever my eyes fixate on, is the scripture I use as a prompt for me to begin writing.  This begins the true message of divine devotion.  When I’m finished, I either ask for another scripture OR I may shuffle my playlist of songs on my phone. The first song or bible scripture that pops up is relevant to the message of the day.

The Vine

 

God has been pruning me by cutting off my branches.  The branches represent the people and things that were either not feeding my soul or taking vital energy from me. Now that I am pruned, my energy flows more abundantly to actually bear fruit God intended me to.  

“Remain in me, and I will remain and you…You cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me” John 15:4

It’s time!  “You didn’t choose me, I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name.” John 15:16 

The vine is Jesus, and the gardener is the Father. How often do we think when something is falling apart, we ask the Lord, “Why me?”  “What have I done so wrong to deserve this?” “Nobody else around me is going through these things!”   People often refer to this as the ‘Dark Night of the Soul.’  I, however, call this ‘pruning’ season.  John 15 refers to “Jesus as the Vine,” and it’s one of my favorite analogies in the Bible. It explains the ‘why’ in the most perfect detail to me.

Every year a gardener is to prune their trees.  Even though it may hurt to see your tree barren once you trim it, it actually comes back more flourishing than ever. More beautiful, more vibrant. As I reflect on my own ‘pruning season,’ I see the beauty beginning to emerge in the tiny buds on the branches.  God had to first cut off my branches that were no longer serving me. The ones that were not producing fruit. I’m thankful God decided certain branches needed to go. In my eyes, I thought at the time all my branches were serving me. But God could see some were actually taking away from me…draining me. I was withering away and didn’t even know it. At first, when God broke off my branches, my job, my marriage, my friends… I was sad and mourning the loss.  I was barren. Until one day, I began to see the new branches forming new buds. As the buds started to blossom, I noticed bees starting to come. The bees represent to me other people in need.  They could smell my sweet nectar,  and wanted to come capture some to take on their journey.  To then fly away to spread the knowledge.   The pruning season is finally over for me. It’s now time to harvest.

 

“Stand By Me” Weezer