Spring Cleaning- Refresh-Renew

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 Song of Solomon 2:10-15

In these verses in the Song of Solomon, the Shepherd King- symbolic of our Shepherd, Jesus Christ- is speaking to His beloved- symbolic of the Church.  He is saying that the seasons have changed, winter has ended and the season for hiding is over. It is the season for singing and pruning the vines, etc. It is a beautiful song to His beloved- and to us- the Church- His children.

I want to focus on verse 15- in the Passion Translation it goes like this: "You must catch the troubling foxes, those sly little foxes that hinder our relationship. They raid our budding vineyard of love to ruin what I've planted within you. Will you catch them and remove them for me? We will do it together."  Christ does not want our relationship with Him hindered in any way. And He even promises to work with us. It is time for some spring cleaning- in the spirit.

What are the little foxes that hinder us? It is those things that keep us from spending time with Him in prayer, in His Word, in personal worship. Those things that distract us. Those things that keep our minds on other things besides the Lord. They don't have to be big things: stealing, murder, foul language, infidelity or sexual sins. They usually are things that in themselves are not bad. But what makes them sin  is that they take time away from the Lord and doing what He has asked us to do. 

Psalm 51:10-12 speaks about God renewing a steadfast spirit and creating a clean heart. As spring comes, I always like to do some spring cleaning. If it is a nice day, I open the windows and let the fresh air come in. I take down my curtains and give them a nice washing. Having a dog that sheds 24/7- there is always fur to sweep up and dust. I go through my clothes and decide what to keep and what to give away. We all have a tendency to hold on to things that we no longer use. We just don't want to let go. This infiltrates our spiritual life as well. We tend to hold on to things that really aren't good for us anymore. As we grow and mature in Christ- He shows us what to let go- attitudes, habits- those little foxes that come in and spoil the vineyard of our relationship with Christ. They eat away at it- a little at a time. Many times we are not aware of it until we find that we are not as close to Christ as we were when we first got saved. We have allowed too many other things to take the place of our Bible reading and prayer. Social media has done a fantastic job at this. If we aren't careful and control it- social media, news, recreation, etc will steal away our time with the Lord. Then when we come to some crisis or trial- we find we are in crisis mode-we pray  "rescue me" prayers. If we had taken the time to keep up on our prayer life- we may not have found ourselves in that predicament- or we may have been better prepared for what we are going through at that particular time.When we are so bogged down with worldly things, listening to the world whoosh by- our spiritual ears are not tuned in to hear what the Lord may be saying.  I must say- either way- God is ever so faithful to rescue us or bring us safely through the trial, but He would much rather us be prepared, prayed up and have the Word living inside of us consistently.

Ephesians 4:23 tells us to be "renewed in the spirit of your mind."  We need that renewal on a daily, consistent basis- not just in times of troubles. As we continually walk in the spirit, walk in the "new man"- in righteousness and holiness- we find that our minds, our thought-life, our attitudes- are consistent with His. 

Spring cleaning. Let's start now, spiritually speaking. Let's look for those little foxes that eat away at our relationship with Jesus Christ. Even if you are one who likes to keep up on the spring cleaning, while you are busy doing those natural chores- let the Word of God take over your spirit- singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. We all need renewing and refreshing from time to time. We all need to check out the closets of our spiritual lives and see just what may be lurking there- and make an intentional decision to get rid of any attitude, and behavior, any time stealing- and dedicate our day and our time to the Lord.

Renew

Refresh

Let's start today! 

 

~Donna


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