I recently had a very unique dream. I was standing among a large group of people and we were worshipping. As we were singing and praising God, there was one point in the song where we got on our knees and each lifted a grapefruit up to God. What? I know! It sounds really strange. But as peculiar as it was, somehow I knew in the dream that we were giving our bitterness to God.
I woke up realizing He had a message for me in this dream, and I pondered it throughout my day. Later, as I did a heart check, I recognized that from a recent offense, I indeed had given place to bitterness and it was affecting my heart. And yes, I needed to give it to Him.
As I considered the dream some more, I thought about the distinct bitter taste that a grapefruit has, and how after I’ve eaten one, it causes other things to taste different. Have you ever eaten a grapefruit and then drunk milk? Yuck!
Because of the offense and bitterness, I had subsequently made some judgements toward this person. Now every time I was with them, or talked with them, it wasn’t the same, it was just sort of off — it was yuck. I believe I was seeing the effects of eating the fruit of bitterness.
I spent time later that day working through forgiving this person and receiving God’s forgiveness. At the end I offered up the bitter fruit and the effects of the judgements I had made. In place of the bitterness, He gave me His beautiful, sweet perspective on the person I had judged and He showed me how He sees them. That was transformational.
Who knew that a grapefruit would have so much to teach me? I’m grateful for His intervention through this odd dream, and the healing and freedom it brought. It also showed me how important it is to Him that we catch these little things and don’t let them affect our hearts.
It reminded me of the verse in Song of Solomon 2:15. “Catch all the foxes, those little foxes, before they ruin the vineyard of love, for the grapevines are blossoming!” (NLT)
Foxes are little, but they can literally destroy a whole vineyard. They burrow and chew and affect the vines so they stop producing fruit. The little things that irritate, embitter or frustrate us are like these foxes and if they are not addressed they can eventually lead to our love growing cold.
May He give you strategies and skills to catch all those little foxes before they ruin your vineyard of love.
- Cathy Stallings
Photo by John Thorne: https://www.pexels.com/photo/portrait-of-a-brown-and-whitefox-4953293/