LEAD. June 2020 | Page 8

broader perspective.
At times we’re in the dark because God is
revealing some aspect of His glory that’s more
than we can stare straight in the face. The
beauty in the darkness is that God is close
enough to cover us with His hand. Often at the
end of a tremendously intense season, He’ll
grace us with a glimpse of His back. He gives
us just enough evidence of His presence for
us to realize He was there all along—not as a
spectator or even just as a protector, but as
Lord over all.
It may be fair to say that God is never closer
to us than He is during the pruning process.
He can’t avoid holding a branch when He’s
pinching off blooms with His thumbnail. With
God as Gardener, pruning is always a hands-on
endeavor. He can’t let us go when He’s cutting
us back. His tending is never impersonal. Never
mechanical. Never by the long arm of the law.
What most of us didn’t expect when we took
up with Him was that His presence would
sometimes cause pain. We expected His
presence to relieve pain and, to our great relief,
it usually does. But who would Isaiah have
turned out to be without “Woe is me, for I am
undone!” (Isaiah 6:5, NKJV)? Or what about
David, without the repentant cry “Let the bones
that you have broken rejoice” (Psalm 51:8)? Or
Job, without “Even if he kills me, I will hope
in him” (Job 13:15, CSB)? These slayings were
their makings.
They may be ours too. God cuts back a fruitful
vine only to increase its fruitfulness. That’s why
growing can look a lot like shrinking.
Taken from Chasing Vines by Beth Moore. Copyright © 2020.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a Division
of Tyndale House Ministries. All rights reserved.
BUY NOW
Beth Moore is a dynamic teacher whose conferences take her across the
globe. Beth founded Living Proof Ministries in 1994 with the purpose
of encouraging women to know and love Jesus through the study of
Scripture. She has written numerous bestselling books and Bible studies,
including Breaking Free, Believing God, Entrusted, and The Quest, which
have been read by women of all ages, races, and denominations. Another
recent addition includes her first work of fiction, The Undoing of Saint
Silvanus.
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