Pages

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Pastoral Pings ~ The Little Foxes that Ruin Prayer’s Vineyard

          One of my favorite word-pictures from the Song of Solomon is that of the little foxes that can ruin a vineyard.[1] It is a very apt way of demonstrating how unresolved problems in a marriage can cause serious damage. As long as the little foxes were allowed to scamper around the roots of the plants, they could do irreparable damage to a crop.
          The same metaphor can apply to many other scenarios than the marriage relationship, one of those being our prayer-relationship with God. There are certain things that can hinder our prayers like little foxes left to tear up the roots of the vines.[2]
          I am sure we can think of many little foxes that ruin our fruitful prayer-relationship with God, but the particular one I have in mind is that of the “old thoughts.” This distinctive species of the fox family scampers through our minds with all kinds of old thoughts that belong to our old life in the world, or the worldly ways of thought that consumed us before coming to Jesus Christ in faith.
          For example, the life of fruitful prayer is described like this: “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.”[3]
          Those who have grown up in the good-works mindset may find themselves entertaining fox-thoughts by imagining that the only way we can “have confidence with God,” and the only way we can except that, “whatever we ask we receive from him,” is if we “keep his (ten) commandments and do what (the law requires) pleases him.”
          If we allow these little foxes of law and old covenant commandments to scamper around our minds, they will tear up the roots of hope and faith that would make us feel that there is truly “now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”[4] Our prayers become hindered and discouraged because we entertain old covenant ideas about how well we need to perform in order to receive answer to our prayers.
          While there is a whole new testament full of encouragement about how wonderfully different things are under the new covenant in Jesus’ blood,[5] I will focus on what John says right after identifying the connection between our confidence, our prayers, and our obedience. He writes, “And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.”[6]
          As soon as we see that the commandments of the new covenant are to “believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and to love one another,” we realize that God has already brought both of these to life within us. We have been taken captive by the love of Jesus Christ as he himself has brought us to faith in his name.
          With that in mind (instead of the little foxes), we can approach God with confidence, knowing that we do have faith in Jesus Christ, and we do love the brotherhood of believers, and that our growing up in these things is the only way things can be for us children of God. We are alive in Jesus (as attested by our faith and love), and so we have reason to pray with hope, faith, and love guiding all that we do, all that we seek, all that we desire, and all that we look for around us.
          I have witnessed far too many Christians thinking their prayers are of little value because they aren’t doing “good enough” at something they perceive as a command of God’s word. Things would change if we could accept the fullness of the gospel of grace, that we are saved by grace through faith, we stand in the grace of God by faith, and we grow up to maturity in Christ by grace through faith.
          As long as we have “faith working through love,”[7]we have the reality of life in Jesus Christ our Lord. And, if we have that life, we have the same Father as Jesus, the one who will hear and answer our prayers, constantly shaping our faith and love so that we are more and more like Jesus every day.
          So, if “we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another,”[8]we can most certainly expect our prayers to do the same. So, let us pray our hearts out, and let God our Father decide how to answer us for our greatest good.[9]

© 2014 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, Canada, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)




[1] Song of Solomon 2:15 (not that I like that the little foxes do that, only that I like the imagery as a good tool for picturing how unresolved problems in relationships can bring similar harm).
[2] I Peter 3:7 shows this as a distinctive issue for us husbands! Peter speaks of it more positively in I Peter 4:7. Obviously, if we do not do the things that help us to pray, the absence of those qualities will hinder our prayers. II Peter 1:3-11 shows the qualities that must be increasing in order for us avoid being “ineffective and unfruitful” (vs 8).
[3] I John 3:21-22
[4] Romans 8:1
[5] Luke 22:20; II Corinthians 3:6; Hebrews 9:15; 12:18-24
[6] I John 3:23
[7] Galatians 5:6
[8] II Corinthians 3:18
[9] Romans 8:28

No comments:

Post a Comment