Are You Willing to Let God Prune and Crush You?

We talk a lot about how following Jesus will cost us our comfort, but what if the cost is more than that?

What if the cost is suffering and pain? What if the cost was saying yes to a process that looked more like season after season of planting, growing, pruning, harvesting, crushing and fermenting (probably with a few refining fires thrown in for good measure)? Would you let the Lord do that with your life? Over and over and over again? Would you let Him make you into wine?

Sure, He can transform us in a second, the same way He made water into wine at the wedding in Cana, but that’s not usually what He does. He takes great joy in the process of turning us into wine. Beautiful, aged wine that can nourish His body—that can be used as an offering. The cost is you. The crushing of you, the fermenting of you, the over and over dying of you.

It’s saying, “Here I am. Crush me, break me, use me. Do what you will with me.” When we surrender in this way, God can really use us. Not to hurt us or damage us, but to break us free from ourselves and bondage.

If a grape told the master, “I’ll grow here, but you can’t crush me,” what do you think would happen? Well, not very much. There’d be no wine and a bunch of fat grapes on a vine that would eventually rot. For our lives to be truly fruitful, we must not only grow the fruit, but also harvest it and allow the crushing. That’s where the true goodness starts. A goodness others can drink.

In Coach and Joe’s latest podcast, “A Winemaker’s Guide to the Bible,” Chad and Joe interview the owners of City Scape Winery, and explore what it looks like to follow God into starting their own vineyard. They venture into not only the winemaking process, but discuss how opening a vineyard changed their lives. Take a listen for yourselves and hear how making wine shows us a glimpse of the way God works—how this process paints a picture of the heart of God.