Recently I was reading a marriage book in Spanish, thus not mentioning the title as I don't know what it is exactly in English. The author was taking about a time when he was ill for a year and the doctors didn't know what to do for him. He spoke about the difficulty of this time and how God used Genesis 15 in his life. He was especially struck by the verse above. See, God had just told Abram that he was going to have descendants that out numbered the stars. He had asked Abram to prepare a sacrifice as a part of the covenant. As he cut the animals and placed them on the altar birds of prey came down wanting to eat the animals. Abram had to fight them off to protect his sacrifice.
I have been thinking about this a lot. It seems quite often that God gives me a blessing and Satan sends his birds of prey to try and steal my joy away. This month we have been hit hard with financial situations that we could never have expected. Greg and I found ourselves fighting depression, disappointments, and discouragement. But God brought this passage to mind. When we look at the blessings God has given us and who he is, we can stand firm in our faith. We can trust God because He knows what is going on, He knows what we need, He is faithful. He is loving. He is everything we need for life and godliness. So we are choosing to shoo away those birds of prey, that tell us we can't ever have anything, that tells us our worth are in things, that tells us the Christian life isn't worth it. Those birds and so many others need to be shooed away.
