Cut What Isn't Producing

Holding on to the wrong things is costing you more than you realize

Do you know many people hold on to things that are holding them back because of how much they cost them? People often invest in the wrong things. However, they don’t cut their losses when the investment goes awry. Instead, they hold on, hoping things will turn around. But while they are hoping, it is costing them more every day.

Let Me cut things out of your life. I see the things that are unfruitful—things that drain your resources but produce nothing good in your life. I am not callous or cold. I am loving, compassionate, and caring. The things that I cut away will be for your benefit.

This is pruning season. It is time for Me to cut away the things that are preventing fruit from growing. Didn’t I already promise that I would prune you so that you could produce more fruit? The branches that do not produce fruit I cut away, and the branches that do produce fruit I prune so that they can produce even more. (John 15:2)

Too often people look at their lives and say, “I am doing enough.” Honestly, most are doing too much. But when they say they are doing enough, they are settling for the small amount of fruit they produce. They do not want to go through the pruning process because it seems painful and tedious.

It is more painful to work hard all the time and have little to show for it. It is tedious to expend energy year after year on things that never give you a harvest, but instead take energy away from the things that do produce. There is a pain in laboring for things that do not satisfy you. I created you to enjoy the fruit of your labor. (Ecclesiastes 3:13)

Invite Me into the garden of your life and ask Me to cut away the areas of unfruitfulness—the energy sappers. The enemy labors to keep you unfruitful. He is the one who sows tares—counterfeit plants—into your life. You see something growing, but it is a weed that is taking your resources and giving you nothing in return. (Matthew 13:25)

Ask Me to make your areas of fruitfulness produce even more. Do not be so satisfied with where you are that you are unwilling to improve. The world around you is constantly finding ways to maximize productivity. Why should My people be content to stand still?

This is a time for courageous leadership. There are entities, organizations, and businesses that are bleeding resources, yet people are not willing to cut away areas of unfruitfulness. Tradition and a lack of courage will bring the demise of organizations. But this is the moment to pivot.

For those who seek Me and give Me access to prune, I will show you what to cut away and give you strategy to become more fruitful. (James 1:5)

This will take courage because many people will resist the pruning. They remember how fruitful that branch was in the past. But consider the blackberry bush: the branches that produced fruit last year will not produce again and should be cut away. Last year’s new growth that did not produce fruit will be the fruitful branches in this season.

The things that produced fruit last season may not be what is fruitful in this time.

Do not let the memory of past fruit keep you from being fruitful now.

Be courageous—and prune.