Rose Bush
by Tanya Person
In thinking of our Christian walk recently, I started to think about a rose bush. When it’s planted, it’s just a stick basically, with maybe a few leaves. But it’s still a rose bush.
As it grows, it gets more leaves and more branches. It’s just as much a rose bush as it was when it was planted, but now it’s more the way God designed a rose bush to look. After more growth, roses appear. Then it’s more obvious that it’s a rose bush. But it’s no more a rose bush now than when it was planted.
Then the gardener has to prune the bush, sometimes cutting it back until it’s almost just a stick again, as when it was planted. The gardener loves the rose bush and he does this because he knows that it will grow back fuller, and produce even more roses. These are all different stages of the rose bush, but the whole time it remains a rose bush.
It’s the same way with our walk with Christ. When we make a decision to follow Christ, we aren’t developed to our full potential. We are believers, but have a lot of growing to do. As we grow and produce fruit, God prunes us so we’ll develop even more fully, and produce more fruit.
After making Jesus Lord of our lives, we may suddenly realise that we haven’t truly made Jesus Lord over a particular area. This doesn’t mean that we didn’t make him Lord, but it means there are areas we’re still trying to control, even though we thought we’d given Him everything when we first committed our life to Him.
We don’t need to question our salvation, but rather recommit ourselves to Jesus, asking Him to be Lord in this area. We need to continually submit our lives to the Master Gardener, who will continue to water us and prune us as He sees best for us, so we can grow into a beautiful bush that produces lovely roses.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, help me to willingly surrender to Your pruning in my life and not get discouraged when I see that I’m not all I would like to be, or all that You want me to be. Help me to trust You as the Master Gardener, and to bloom for Your glory. Amen.
Tanya Person Tanya and her husband, Jim, were missionaries to Hungary for over 18 years. They have worked with Ellel since 2005. After serving in various positions with Ellel in Central and Eastern Europe, God led them back to the United States, where they are now serving with the Ellel USA team. They have a passion to see leaders restored, the church discipled and walking in God’s fullness of life and freedom, and for mentoring the existing and developing team. Tanya also enjoys crocheting and knitting in her free time and has written some children’s picture books.
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