Catch the Foxes!

Tuesday's, here lately, seem to be blog day for me, as I process out the nuggets from our Made to Crave Bible study. As I watched and listened to the video last night, a Scripture came to mind and it wasn't one Lysa was sharing. This morning, as I have looked up that Scripture, God showed me another one in the same book and I think they are very much related. 

The Scripture that came to me during the study was Song of Songs (Solomon) 2:15:

Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom.

As I looked at that Scripture this morning, God directed my attention to Song of Songs 1:6:

Do not stare at me because I am dark, because I am darkened by the sun. My mother’s sons were angry with me and made me take care of the vineyards; my own vineyard I have neglected.

I think there is much to chew on from these two verses but here's what revelation I have received so far. In Chapter 1, The Shuunamite woman gives her excuses as to why she is "dark" and I think the kicker is in the last part of the verse where she says, "my own vineyard I have neglected."

WOW! How true is that of most women?! We focus on others, in part because that is how we are wired but the other reality is that we don't want to deal with our own stuff. So in that taking care of others, we neglect our own vineyards! Notice, she blamed her current condition, of a neglected vineyard, on others, specifically, her brothers. We can blame our condition on everyone else but until we take ownership of the fact that we have sinned and neglected our own vineyards, we will live in the realm of misplaced blame and hide behind excuses. The Lord commands us to "love our neighbor's as ourselves" but if we neglect ourselves are we really even loving?

Fast forward to Chapter 2, where we read the Lover talking to the Shuunamite woman. Now, if you are not familiar with the Song of Songs (Solomon), now we be a good time for me to break it on down a little (not that I'm a Bible scholar but I love this book!). There are different theories about the book of Song of Songs (Solomon) and whether or not it is the story of King Solomon and a Shuunamite woman or Christ and the Church. Some argue that it can't be both but I think it is. :) Regardless, the book is a dialog between the Shuunamite woman (aka Beloved) and Solomon (aka Lover). Shuunamite woman is who we were talking about in Chapter 1 and the verse in Chapter 2 is spoken by the Lover. Hear again what he says:

Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom.

Remember, he is speaking to the Shuunamite woman and he tells her to catch the foxes that ruin our vineyards. Okay, so what about these foxes?

Now, he was speaking to her in regards to those things that would try and inhibit their love and telling her to "catch them". Jesus would tell us the same thing today, catch the foxes that ruin your vineyard!

What are our foxes?
I believe they are our excuses, our sins (pride, unbelief, fear, gluttony, selfishness, jealousy, unforgiveness, you name it!) and our THOUGHTS!

ANYTHING that inhibits our love relationship with the Lord is our FOX.

God commands us to CATCH those foxes. What does that look like? It looks like, "taking captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5)" That is how we catch the foxes! God continues to impress upon me the importance of our thoughts! We have the ability to choose what we think on and what we allow in our life!

Now, I'm gonna be real honest and tell you that Joyce Meyer used to annoy the snot out of me! Every time I turned on the TV to watch Enjoying Everyday Life or if I tuned in on the radio, she was ALWAYS talking about our thoughts. And I would get so annoyed and would think to myself, "does she ever talk about anything else?!" But as I continue this journey of freedom and wholeness, I realize, there really isn't anything else to talk about and Joyce was right all along!

Now, here is the connection, I see, between these two verses.

The way that we avoid neglecting our own vineyards is to catch the little foxes that spoil the vine!!

So, here's our plan of action: pray and ask the Lord, "what are my 'foxes'"? Then, set traps and take those "foxes" captive! You and I have more authority than we recognize and walk in! It is my prayer that we would walk in more authority than we ever have before and that we really would take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ.The ultimate goal of all of this is our vineyards blossoming as we are in a love relationship with the Lord!