A certain rose bush is witheringly naked and empty among its bountiful family of flowering foliage. Its leaves smaller and crumpling with a sickening presence of aged paper. Its roses barely present and noticeable as its fading context. On the ground lay its abandoned fruit of beauty turning the ground below into a mulch-like texture. In its own mind it feels as typical as ever; perhaps it has never known a healthy and fruitful state. Tragic that it never cares to look upon its brothers and sisters in full and vigorous bloom - drawing the gaze of the public with awe and praise to their loving gardener. If only it would allow the Him to do his work upon it, permitting him to trim and prune its branches in order that it might flourish in glory as with the rest of the garden.
It is a sad truth the story of this dying rose bush - fading into the shadow because it resists the necessary pain to make it beautiful by its master. Pruning, in the life of a Christian is an altogether necessary practice if the blooming effect of holiness to be made visible to the world. Only when its branches of dead weight and wicked practices are trimmed from him will the anointing power flow for the process of new life and fruit to appear. If the Christian so desires the power of new life to flow as the expression of God's amazing grace, he must be willing to endure the pain of pruning - cutting off and out the evil that drains the crippled life from him. Only by the removal of carnal practices and worldly indoctrination will he feel his new power rise up within him; participating in the glory and honor brought to his gardener.
