„Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom,”

Song of Solomon 2, 15 Engl. Standard Version

„Behold, I do a new thing; now it shall spring forth: shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the waste,”

Isaiah 43, 19 Darby Translation

The story goes that an old man had experienced some wonderful things with God, when he was a young man. He carefully wrote all his testimony down and took the papers up to the attic, to keep them safe. Every time visitors came, he would send his wife to fetch his precious document. He would read all his testimony and everyone was amazed at what God had done for him.

One day, visitors came unannounced, and he sent his wife to quickly fetch the papers, but he became very nervous when she did not come down again for a long time. At last his wife appeared, looking very sad, and holding out a mass of shredded papers, she said to her husband, „Dear husband, the mice have eaten your testimony!!“

Well, we laugh at this story, yet there are some important truths here. Every one of us who has been walking with Jesus for some years have wonderful testimonies and answers to prayer, and we hold them in our hearts and memories, hoard them like precious treasure, and we should do this. We might have even written them down, put them in a book or on Facebook for others to read. Every answer to prayer showed us another facet, another side to the character, ability and compassion of our Saviour, which we should never lose sight of.

However, as I thought about this story, I wondered why the man left his testimony lying around for the mice to get at. Or did he put it in a drawer and the drawer was so old that the mice could gnaw their way in later? Or was it his wife who was the guilty party? How long was it since he, himself, had been to see if his treasure was really secure?! Some things we can entrust to others, but other things, we, ourselves, must hold on to.

We do not know if this man had experienced anything new with God, or perhaps his testimony was now so old that it could not be used any more, or whether it was no longer up to date. What about our testimonies? Are we still holding on to what God has done in the past, but in such a way that He cannot show Himself to us in another way today ?!

Years ago my husband and I were on a preaching itinerary in Wales, Great Britain. It was a Wednesday night and George was going to preach in a mission quite high up in the mountains. We got lost in the fog and of course, GPS’s (Satnavs) were not known at that time, so we arrived late. Just as we were coming into the meeting hall, a man on the platform was telling the congregation how careful we must be around those Christians who spoke in tongues! George and I thought: Well, Brother, there are two of those ‘dangerous’ people coming into your church right now, and one of them is going to preach tonight!

We stayed the night with one of the elders and his wife, and next morning over breakfast, we asked him if he had had any part in the great Welsh Revival.

„O yes,“ he replied, „I, myself, worked alongside Evan Roberts, for several years. I saw all that was happening!“

(The preacher, Evan Roberts, had a great part to play in the „Welsh Revival“. He is more well known than anyone else from that time whom God was using.) We were very surprised to hear the elder say this, as he was the man who had been warning his congregation about people who spoke „in tongues“. He went on to say, „In fact, my wife and I have been praying every Saturday night, all night, for fifteen years, for God to send a revival just the same as that one again!“

What dedication, what determination, some people might think, so sincere and yet we knew they were so sincerely wrong! We did not have the courage to tell him that we believed God would not do this, exactly the same. While there might be some characteristics which could be similar, yet God does not usually work in exactly the same way! God was mightily at work at that time when we were visiting them. It was the time of the „Charismatic Renewal“, but this dear Brother and his wife were blind to what the Holy Spirit was doing and what was happening in their day, now!

The ‘mice’ of tradition, religious spirits and prejudice had eaten their testimony. They showed us their book shop and said nobody wanted to buy anything. We were not surprised when we looked at the dusty shelves and racks, the books and magazines, so old some were yellowed with age and with pages turned up at the corners! There was not one piece of literature telling about what God was doing NOW, red-hot off His press!

Yet if we are not careful, every Christian can have ‘mice’ eating their testimony, or little foxes eating the tender grapes of God’s working in their heart. There are ‘mice’ and foxes of sin, of fear and doubt; ‘mice’ of complacency; ‘mice’ of relying on our own strengths and experiences instead of relying on the strength of our Lord and reaching out to Him for the freshness, the new things, He wants to bless us with; bad attitudes… You can probably think of some others.

So devotionalsjust4u!! Friends, let’s ask the Lord to show us if there are any ‘mice’ or ‘foxes’ nibbling or even tearing apart our testimony, and with His help, let’s guard it as a special treasure, for people are reading us every day!

„But you are our letter written in our heart and known and read by everyone,“

2 Corinthians 3:2 Aramaic Bible in Plain English

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, forgive us for the times we have been careless with our testimony, where we have not guarded it, and the enemy has been able to make it ineffective or destroy it.

Forgive us for relying on what others have said or what our feelings and experiences would show us, instead of relying on your written Word.

We will hold fast to all that you have given or shown us, yet prepare and open our hearts for the NEW things you want to do for us.

Come, Holy Spirit, and do your work in us now!

In Jesus’ Name, Amen.