Fruitfulness....abundance....

Fruitfulness.....abundance.....

There is a fruit stand down the street from where I am staying. If you know me, I love fruit and I love to try new fruits.  My goal when traveling,  is to try a new food everyday....anyway, so we stopped at the stand, one new fruit, plus papaya, pineapple, and pomelo...nothing like fresh picked pineapple...
It is a treat to have fresh locally fruit with every meal....

Funny thing or a God thing , I had already started working on verses for abundance and fruitfulness.....

Genesis 27:28
May God give you heaven’s dew and earth’s richness— an abundance of grain and new wine.

Job 36:31
This is the way he governs the nations and provides food in abundance.

Psalm 36:8
They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights.

Psalm 65:11
You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance...

Psalm 66:12
You let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance.

Psalm 107:37
They sowed fields and planted vineyards that yielded a fruitful harvest.

Isaiah 27:2-3
2 In that day—
“Sing about a fruitful vineyard:
3     I, the Lord, watch over it;
    I water it continually.
I guard it day and night
    so that no one may

But, being at  a wedding event, with grandparent potential, there are the innuendos or outright questions of how soon will there be grandchildren ....fun to look from afar at the interaction about that subject...

Genesis 1:28
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

Psalm 128:3
Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table.

But, the I have to come back to the verse that most of us don't like to hear.....the pruning one for more fruitfulness....especially the pruning part...I don't like to be pruned, cut back, shaped, , but the promise of "more" is significant....
I like the term, superfluous. Get rid of any extra...I have lots of extra stuff, things, attitudes.....fluff...get down to the plant that becomes more fruitful..I just don't like the pruning part.. The clipping, shaping, sorting, of my life and attitudes.  But, I want to be more fruitful...pain from loss....but growth....

Prune defined...prune
to reduce
:  to cut off or cut back parts of for better shape or more fruitful growth
:  to cut away what is unwanted or superfluous

John 15:2
He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.

Thank YOU, for the abundance...that only you can provide...in life, whether in fruit of the land, families...even the pruning...to be fruitful for You....