My Prayer For 2013

     I was going to write about how disappointing 2012 has been. I was going to go on and on about how someone who saw hope and possibility in everything finally got to his breaking point through the loss of friendships, a ministry he deeply cared for, and various other unwelcome changes and revelations along the way.  I was going to say how I am praying that 2013 is better; but isn’t that our hope every new year? We hope and pray and make resolutions so that the next year will be even better than the last. All that said, I praise God for the blessings he’s brought not only in my life, but in the lives of the people I love.

     This year has been a banner year for one of my oldest and dearest friends. I have watched – sometimes from close by, sometimes from afar – as his life has been transformed by the opportunity to live his dream. I have watched other friends find love, get married, start families, buy their first homes, and have even celebrated as a couple of them released their first books. Praise God for his goodness!

     This past year taught me that I could fall in love again after years of being single, and that the loss of that love was not the end, but the beginning of something else. While it did not last, the relationship taught me plenty about the things that I want in someone I plan to spend the rest of my life with and about the things within me that I need to be aware of in order to one day be a good husband. 2012 also brought a tremendous amount of healing in my relationship with my parents; something I am infinitely thankful for.

     I’ve spent too long stewing and thinking about everything that didn’t go as I had planned or hoped for… all the things and people that I’d considered so important in my life that simply weren’t there any longer. Those thoughts could drive someone mad. Today, as I was driving back from running an errand, John 15 came to mind.

I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.

Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. (John 15:1-6, NLT)

As I was preparing to write this, I cam across a post from a pastor regarding that passage, and it really struck a chord in me:

Jesus is telling us that the Father deals with believers in the same way that gardeners deal with grape vines. Any extra “material” in our lives – “stuff” which does not contribute to the purpose for which He made us – is to be removed by God. This is not the most comfortable word-picture I have ever heard, because it sounds a little painful. To admit the truth, I like some of the things in my life that don’t contribute anything to my fruitfulness as a Christian. Also, from personal experience, I have to admit that God’s process of pruning me has been painful at times.

If you have never seen a grape vine in the autumn after pruning, it is shocking. A pruned grape vine looks like it has been destroyed. This isn’t a haircut – it is open heart surgery. The vine, if it could talk might say, “this doesn’t feel like just pruning – it feels like damage.” And it continues to look and feel devastated throughout the winter. But as extreme as it appears, the ultimate result is that when the growing season returns, the branches put out more and better fruit than before. It is in fact, made healthier by this pruning.

    
     When I say that I pray 2013 is a better year for you, my friends, I mean that I hope that if you are already living your dream that God will continue to flood your life with blessings beyond anything you can ask or imagine. I pray that He shows you His dreams for you, which I can guarantee are much bigger than the dreams you have for yourself.  If you, like me, have struggled to see the beauty in the trials of this past year, I pray that when you look in the mirror, you don’t see damage or devastation. Instead, may you recognize how God is  currently blessing your life even in the worst of time, and may you see God’s handiwork and a life that is being perfected for His use. I pray that 2013 will be your growing season, and that this time next year, you can bask in the blessings of the fruit He has produced in you. The best is yet to come!

May His peace and grace be with you in this coming year and throughout the ages.

Rob