Relentless

For the last year, a small group of us have been studying the book of Song of Songs as part of our devotional lives, but also as a part of our worship team as we have been singing and praying the passages at our house of prayer. Believe it or not, it’s taken us a year just to make it to the end of chapter 2!! But we were never in any rush and have been quite content to linger on certain verses for several weeks, seeking to discover the depths of what they contain. Recently, we’ve been looking at Song of Songs 2:15 which says,

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

Essentially, this verse is describing the cry of the young woman, who represents the bride of Christ, for her bridegroom (Jesus) to come and help her rid her life of the “little” sins and compromises that are ruining the garden of her heart. Last week, I found myself being convicted on a couple areas in my own life and the Lord began to speak to me about this topic and I thought I’d share a glimpse with you into my journey.

It all started after getting the IHOP Immersed CD and Misty’s Relentless CD, starting with David Brymer’s song “You Will Not Relent”…

You will not relent
Until my righteousness shines forth like the dawn
You will not relent
Until you have a bride pure and white

I wanna know the yearnings of your heart
I wanna feel you burn for me
I wanna know the yearnings of your heart
And feel your jealous jealousy

And then Misty’s “You Won’t Relent”…

You won’t relent until you have it all
My heart is yours

I’ll set you as a seal upon my heart
As a seal upon my arm
For there is love that is a strong as death
Jealousy demanding as the grave
Many waters cannot quench this love

Then today I was reading an exerpt from Dana Candler’s book “Entirety” that one of my team members sent to us, and it totally coincided with what I was experiencing…

“It is the point on love’s journey where sincerity must meet severity and be converted into entirety…Jesus wants all of us and not just a part. He is jealous that we would not remain in the place of immaturity, though our hearts are sincere, but move into the fullness of love, where our love is entire.”

In Song of Songs 2:15, the young Shulammite woman is sincere in her cry to her Bridegroom to “catch the little foxes”, yet she is not to the place where she is willing to completely let go of her sin and compromise and accept his earlier invitation (Song of Songs 2:10) to follow him on the mountains (in Song of Songs 2:17 she tells him to go without her). I sometimes find myself in a similar situation where I am crying out for deliverance, yet at the same time, struggling to actually deal aggressively with the darkness in my heart, either because I am reluctant to let go of the pleasure of that sin or because I feel incapable of knowing how to rid my heart of it. The other deception is that they aren’t really that big of a deal – it’s tempting to make excuses that they’re not hurting anyone or to look to the world’s standards which would justify our actions, instead of looking to his holiness as the standard. There’s a verse that often convicts me in Hebrews 12:4…

“In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.”

But as I listened to these two songs, I felt encouraged that even while I desire to be set free of these foxes, that His desire to set me free is even stronger. He is jealous to have my entire heart and will not relent or hold back until he has fully consumed me. He is the most persistent man and will not give up in his pursuit of my heart and his quest to form me into his perfect image. He is committed to my growth and maturity and is dedicated to completing the work he has begun in me.

Yet, I was struggling to find this comforting when I was in the midst of feeling him put his finger on certain areas! It felt like he was purposefully pushing my buttons in order to expose something within me that I really didn’t want to see. I was annoyed, frustrated and angry – it was painful and difficult! This was not how I imagined him answering my cry for rescuing! I desperately wanted to focus my anger on someone or something and blame them for the cause of my pain, yet I was being forced to recognize that my circumstances where not the source – it was him! Like it says in Hosea 6:1…

“Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds.”

He was both the cause and the solution. And yet I felt in the midst of it that I didn’t need to be ashamed, because he wasn’t exposing the little foxes in my heart out of anger with me or disappointment in me, it was because of his incredible, burning love for me that he was doing it. It’s his kindness and severity mixed together perfectly in order to produce the desired result in my heart, that my “sincerity…be converted to entirety”.

In the moment, I felt a little overwhelmed and discouraged by what I was seeing in me, and I wanted to try and cover it up again and pretend it wasn’t there. Yet I could feel his gentle and persistent encouragement to say, “Yes” to what he was doing and not turn him away. I also felt that even if I said “No” like the Shulammite and told him to turn and go on without me, that he would not give up on me. He is merciful and full of compassion for us in our weakness and struggle to rid our hearts of the little foxes and he will set us free, no matter how long it takes. He is patient and relentless. He is not discouraged by my weakness. In fact, when he does turn and leave to leap upon the mountains without me, he’s not abandoning me or leaving me to be ruined by the little foxes – it’s actually all part of his plan to capture my heart, for in his absence, I see how much I need and desire him (see Song of Songs 3:1-4).

I hope you will find this encouraging and challenge you to pray this same prayer – ask the Lord to set you free of the areas of sin and compromise that still remain in your heart and take courage that He will not give up until He has made your “righteousness shine forth like the dawn”.