John 1

2. … every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

Does the pain of pruning get less painful through time and experience?  Not to my knowledge.  However, the willingness to endure pruning can come to a greater appreciation for, and even joy in the pruning.  There are medical treatments that make you seem worse before you are better.  Patients must weigh the options and choose for themselves.  Once they experience the discomfort of the treatment followed by a better quality of life because of the treatment, the treatment is appreciated.  Hardly a day goes by that I don’t experience the pruning hand of the Lord in some manner.  Maybe I just need more pruning than others!  Any unkind word or silent judgment in my heart brings the loving pruning shears to my thought life and conscience.  I am always disappointed that I need the pruning.  Disappointed in me and not the vinedresser.  I have usually allowed a branch to grow in the wrong direction.  Maybe I allowed my thought life to ramble into restricted areas declared by the Word as off limits.  “Snip, snip!”  Thank you Lord!  Maybe I drifted into the rancid waters of gossip.  It can become a lifestyle that leads to terrible things.  Gossip can even produce disease in the Body of Christ.  Conviction will always come when we yield to soulish and sinful behavior!  Always!  To choose to go ahead and indulge anyway is a dangerous practice.  It weakens the conscience and pushes away the Holy Spirit.  That resistance to pruning will also limit our being used as an instrument of the Holy Spirit in the days ahead.  In those cases, if we are used, we are diminished in our capacity and level of anointing. 

Come Holy Spirit and have your way in every area of my life!