Obedience Brings Blessing

“Blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.” Luke 11:28

The prophet Samuel reminds us, “To obey is better than sacrifice.” Obedience brings blessing. When I was young, I was always asking God to treat me gently. I was aware that there were many things that could happen that could destroy the perfect world I had with my family, my friends, this precious little circle I lived in. And God was faithful, and answered my prayers. 

Then one day He showed me, that if He did not prune me, I would wither and die like a plant that was not exposed to a gardener's pruning shears. There are different kinds of cutters. Some are strong enough to cut tree branches, and they are called "loppers". Then there are the specialized ones for pruning Japanese bonsai and the exquisite miniature landscapes of the Vietnamese. To cut leaves and branches higher up, gardeners can use an averruncator which has a telescopic pole.

One of my favorite verses is from 1 Corinthians 3:9, where Saint Paul tells us we are God's garden, His field, His farm. And like any farmer, God prepares the ground for a rich harvest. The hard soil must be broken up, so He can plant the seeds. The season, the timing, the depth of the seeds in the soil, how much water, how much sun, these are all to be considered. And then when the plants are grown, and in need of pruning, God lovingly takes out those pruning shears and removes those dead leaves and unfruitful stems. Even Jesus was pruned. And Jesus learned obedience from His suffering (Hebrews 5:8-9). Perfect obedience.

I do believe that God has a special set of shears for each one of us. For some of us, He uses the lopper. For some He picks the high carbon kiri style shears for precision cutting. Whatever tool God uses, and we can be sure it is the perfect one, we know it is so we will yield much fruit, and bloom! One day we will be perfect too, like Jesus!