Preaching this Sunday I told a couple of stories about "Mouse Encounters" and how the creatures met their sad demise at my hands. Although they had to go, the point was made by thinking about the position of the mice.... before the final moment that is! Trapped. Stuck. In the wrong place. Unsure. Uncertain. Lost. Alone. All those things that describe our own situations from time to time. Out of control. Not in charge. It seemed to me that the analogy worked.

There's another side to the example as well, though. Mice are pests. When they take up residence they are a worry. They are a distraction, and sometimes hard to get rid of. They seem to be resistent, or just too smart to be caught by the common traps. In my experience, too, they don't keep falling for the same thing. They hide, but you can hear them sometimes. You see the evidence of them in the gnawed bread bag, or cereal box. The deposits they leave behind, dirtying your environment. Can you see the other side of the analogy developing?

In a similar way, the Bible talks about "Little Foxes." Its in the Song of Solomon, Chapter 2, verse 15.

Here's what it says, in the New International Version:
"Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom."

Let me spell it out.
Foxes, like mice, are nocturnal. They come out when its dark, and stalk. This verse describes the problem of them ruining the vineyard - think, "Church." (You're part of the church, don't forget. sometimes it gets personal).

It says that the vineyards are in bloom. Think, "lively, evangelistic church." A place where God is on the move. Where there are people finding God, being healed and restored. Broken hearts being bound up, comforting those who mourn. This is the ideal place for the little foxes to try and spoil.
Or for the mice to try and take up residence. They become a preoccupation; how to get rid of them. They are on your mind. The mice have to go!

God has blessed us by setting us free. We have the knowledge and the authority to get rid of the opposing spirits a lot more easily than the mouse invaders. Get some help from someone who has some experience in this. Learn for yourself that you have authority. Learn how to use it. Take a stand in prayers of faith. Believe and know that God is for you and not against you.

For freedom you have been set free.