God isn't punishing you. He's pruning you.

I am seeing what looks like a collective pruning taking place in the body of Christ. Many believers are weary, disillusioned, and uncertain about what lies ahead. Between the turmoil in our world, the infighting among Christians online, and unexpected changes closer to home, many are trying to make sense of losses and disruptions they never anticipated.

If that describes you, you are certainly not alone. The changes and adjustments of this past season have caused many to reconsider what they believe, where they belong, and even what God may be doing in their lives.

Perhaps some of this shaking is an invitation to examine our hearts and allow God to sanctify, heal, and prepare us for what comes next. Scripture describes those who have been cleansed as “vessels for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work” (2 Timothy 2:21 ESV).

But pruning can be difficult to understand — especially when God begins touching things that don't appear to be wrong.

We gladly surrender those things we know are contrary to His ways. We expect Him to deal with our sin, our selfishness, and the obvious things that hinder our walk.

But what happens when He begins asking for things that aren’t necessarily wrong? What happens when following Him means releasing something good?

A relationship we cherish. An expectation we have carried for years. A place where we have found belonging. A role that has given us purpose. Even an understanding of our future that we believed was settled.

Sometimes surrender requires us to release things we never imagined He would ask for

Jesus asked His Father to “sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth” (John 17:17). He knew that becoming one with the Father would require a sanctifying work that separates us from what is false and brings us into agreement with what is true.

That sounds wonderful — until the truth challenges something we love.

We usually think of revelation as something that adds to our lives. God shows us something we didn’t know. Our eyes are opened. Understanding comes. Suddenly we can see something more clearly than before.

But sometimes revelation takes something away.

It exposes an assumption we have carried. It reveals something about a situation we would rather not know. It uncovers motives — ours or someone else’s — that change the way we understand a relationship. It challenges an expectation we had built our future around.

And once we see the truth, we have a decision to make — will we follow what God has shown us, even when it costs us?

This is where surrender becomes more than a spiritual ideal. It becomes deeply personal.

There may be things to lay down. Relationships to surrender. Expectations to set aside.

When Jesus mentored His disciples, He continually urged them to consider the cost of their call. He never suggested that following Him would be without sacrifice or loss. He told them plainly that allegiance to Him would sometimes create painful choices. Following truth could cost them relationships, reputation, comfort, and security.

And then He demonstrated it Himself.

Immediately after Jesus prayed for His followers to be sanctified in truth and brought into oneness with the Father (John 17), He was led to the garden where one of His own disciples betrayed Him.

Think about the timing of that.

Jesus had just prayed for unity, and almost immediately His band of 12 was torn apart.

Judas had walked with them. He had shared meals with them, traveled with them, ministered alongside them, and witnessed the same miracles. He was not some obvious outsider who suddenly appeared at the garden. He was one of their own. And now the truth about his heart was being exposed.

What happened next was shocking, painful, and costly.

The disciples were thrown into chaos. Their expectations about the future were shattered. Their teacher was arrested. One of their companions had become a betrayer. Peter reached for a sword and then later denied even knowing Jesus. The others scattered in fear. Everything familiar was being stripped away.

Yet the Father had not lost control. What looked like everything falling apart was actually part of the sanctifying work necessary for everything that was about to be made new.

This is difficult for us to understand when we are in the middle of it. We naturally associate God’s blessing with things coming together. Relationships being restored. Doors opening. Plans succeeding. People agreeing.

Certainly, God delights in reconciliation and unity. Jesus Himself prayed that His followers would be one.

But biblical unity is never built upon pretending. It is built upon truth.

Sometimes before God brings things together, He exposes what cannot continue. And that exposure may feel like loss. And this is where our love for truth gets tested.

It is easy to say we want God’s perspective until His perspective disrupts ours

It is easy to say we want His will until His will requires us to release our preferred outcome.

Sometimes we even call our resistance “faith.” We keep believing that a situation must turn around because we cannot imagine God allowing it to end. We keep holding onto something because letting go feels like giving up.

But surrender is not giving up on God. It is giving up our right to determine what faithfulness must look like.

Scripture states that the truth will set us free (John 8:32). But truth often does its work by first exposing whatever is false. There is a circumcision of the heart — a cutting away of things that cannot accompany us where God is leading.

And cutting hurts. Even when it is God doing the cutting.

Jesus said that His Father prunes every branch that bears fruit so that it may bear more fruit (John 15:2). That means pruning is not necessarily evidence that something has gone wrong. Sometimes the Father cuts precisely because something has been fruitful. That should change the way we view loss.

There are things that were right for one season that may not belong in the next. There are relationships that God genuinely used but may no longer have the same assignment.

There are expectations that once inspired our faith but may have become substitutes for simply trusting Him.

Surrender means allowing the Father to decide what remains

This does not mean we casually walk away from relationships or label every difficulty as God’s pruning. Nor does it give us permission to abandon commitments simply because they become uncomfortable. Scripture continually calls us to patience, forgiveness, reconciliation, and covenant faithfulness.

But neither should we preserve something merely because losing it frightens us. There are moments when truth requires courage.

The disciples eventually discovered that the devastation of that night was not the end of their story. On the other side of the cross came resurrection. On the other side of their shattered expectations came a revelation of Jesus far greater than anything they had previously understood. And on the other side of the loss of Judas came a company of believers who would soon be filled with the Holy Spirit and sent into the nations.

They could not see any of that in the garden. They simply had to keep following.

And that is one of the deepest costs of surrender. We often have to release something before we can see what God intends to put in its place.

We want explanations before any changes are made. But He asks for trust before He will move.

We want assurance that what we are losing will be replaced. He asks us to believe that He Himself is enough.

Adapted from Wanda’s latest book, “ORACLES OF WISDOM: A Journey into the Father’s Heart.” Pre-Order between September 28 and October 12 for special discount at WandaAlger.Me before its public release on October 19.