Shoo!

We’ve all been in situations where we’ve had to shoo things away. In the process of God making covenant with Abram, Genesis 15:11 says,

“And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses,

Abram drove them away.”

Mark 4:4 and 15 use the visual of birds swooping down to take seed before it can germinate, to help us understand what Satan is trying to do as the Word is spread throughout the world. 

I love visuals. Think of what we do when we are shooing anything that’s about to take something valuable. I love hawks, but if one comes toward my pets, I’m shooing with everything I’ve got. We tend to wave our arms in big gestures.

As we ask the Lord to protect every seed planted from His glorious, nourishing, able-to-save Word, we can use this visual of swooping arms to remind us of the necessity of praise. When our arms (hearts) fly up in praise and adoration of our God, the enemy is shooed away. Oh, he’ll try to come back. But, Lord, let him return every time to find hearts swooping upward to praise and magnify You, so he is unable to land and the spiritual valuables are kept safe.

A definition of “shoo” includes making something go away by acting in a discouraging manner. That means we can turn the tables on the enemy who tries to discourage us. When we are in an attitude of genuine praise and thanksgiving to God, Satan is discouraged because he knows he cannot affect or prevail. Thanksgiving and praise. Thanksgiving and praise. Let’s live continually in it, so that every circumstance and every spiritual attack results in victory.

“Submit yourselves therefore to God. 

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” 

James 4:7