Today, I was chatting to my Mum and remembering when I looked after her very old pot plant for her. You can learn a lot about life through the simple task of gardening and digging in the dirt.

Mum’s pot plant was my great Aunt’s hydrangea plant and must be decades old. Unfortunately in the hot summer months it started to look, sickly, wilted, and stopped producing any fresh shoots or flowers. I decided to take some drastic action and examine why this plant wasn’t doing well and discovered that underneath the remaining wilted foliage was a whole lot of dead wood that nothing would ever grow from again. I cut the unproductive wood away from the plant and prayed I hadn't killed it.

A few days later, I noticed a mass of new green, healthy leaves had already filled the hydrangea pot and realised it had never looked so healthy—cutting back that dead wood worked.

Our life is much the same. So often, we are holding onto things which are the past, unproductive, and just plain dead. They may at one time have been a benefit and even produced something, but now they only suck the energy and goodness from our life, and nothing good is growing from that particular space. Primarily because dead wood is exactly that – it’s dead!

Today if you know you’ve been holding or carrying around issues, the past, or things that don’t produce anything good in you, I encourage you to ask Jesus to help you cut them off and out of your life. Then trust Him to pour His power and love on the rest of your life so that you can begin to grow and develop to your fullest so that you become even more fruitful.

Jesus said, “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.” (John 15:1-4 NLT)

“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7)

Prayer: Lord, please help me recognise those areas of my life that are dead and that I need, with your help to cut away or weed out. I want to be all you created me to be, and I ask you to work in me today. In Jesus name Amen.