Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit (My Father) taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. – John 15:2

Supposing Him to be the gardener. – John 20:15

Certain of us have been made to suffer much physical pain, which often bites into the spirit, and makes the heart to stoop: others have suffered heavy temporal losses, having had no success in business, but, on the contrary, having had to endure privation, perhaps even to penury. Are you ready to complain against the Lord for all this? I pray you, do not do so. Take the supposition of the text into your mind this morning. The Lord has been pruning you sharply, cutting off your best boughs, and you seem to be like a thing despised that is constantly tormented with the knife. Yes, but “supposing Him to be the gardener,” suppose that your loving Lord has wrought it all, that from His own hand all your grief has come, every cut, and every gash, and every slip: does not this alter the case? Hath not the Lord done it? Well, then, if it be so, put your finger to your lip and be quiet, until you are able from your heart to say, “The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away, and blessed be the name of the Lord.” I am persuaded that the Lord hath done nothing amiss to any one of His people; that no child of His can rightly complain that He has been whipped with too much severity; and that no one branch of the vine can truthfully declare that it has been pruned with too sharp an edge. No; what the Lord has done is the best that could have been done, the very thing that you and I, if we could have possessed infinite wisdom and love, would have wished to have done; therefore, let us stop each thought of murmuring, and say, “The Lord hath done it,” and be glad…Let us believe great things from the work of Christ by His Spirit in the midst of His people’s hearts, and we shall not be disappointed. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

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