Morning By Morning #151

Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards.

Song of Songs 2:15

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

A small thorn can cause great pain. A little cloud can hide the sun. “Little foxes…ruin the vineyards,” and little sins do harm to a vulnerable heart. These little sins burrow into the soul and fill it with what is so hateful to Christ that He will no longer share His close fellowship and communion with us. Even big sins cannot destroy a Christian, yet even a little sin can make him miserable. Jesus will not walk with His people unless they force every known sin from their lives. He says, “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love” (John 15:10).

In fact, some Christians very seldom enjoy their Savior’s presence. How can this be? Surely it is painful for a vulnerable child to be separated from his father. Are you a child of God, yet satisfied to continue living without seeing your Father’s face? What! You are the bride of Christ, yet content without His companionship! You have fallen into a sad condition indeed, for the pure bride of Christ mourns like a dove without her mate when he has left her.

Ask yourself what has driven Christ from you? He hides His face behind your wall of sins, a wall built with little pebbles as easily as large stones. Great seas are made of small drops of water and huge rocks are made of small particles. In the same way, the sea that divides you from Christ maybe filled with the small drops of your little sins, and the rock that has nearly sunk your ship may be the daily buildup of the tiny cells of a coral reef comprised of little sins.

If you desire to live with Christ, walk with Christ, see Christ, and have fellowship with Christ. Beware of “the little foxes that ruin the vineyards”—“for our vines have tender grapes” (Song 2:15 KJV). Jesus invites you to go with Him and “catch…the foxes.”With His great power, He will undoubtedly, like Samson, quickly and easily catch them.

Why not go with Him to the hunt?

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

Unfortunately, instead of repentance, sin’s first work in our lives is to cause us to attempt to hide from the Lord. When Adam and Eve “heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day…they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden” (Gen. 3:8).

Notice this verse does not say the Lord hid Himself from them. No, it was their sins that built the dividing wall between themselves and God. “Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear” (Isa. 59:2). Yet even in the garden of Eden, God in His sovereign grace sought out Adam—“But the LORD God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’” (Gen. 3:9).

Believers need never suffer alienation from Him because “now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility” (Eph. 2:13–14).

Confess this morning those “little foxes” that have broken your fellowship with Christ who shed His blood for you!