We smile at the thought of birds perching on scarecrows! But the truth is that once a bird has conquered its fear of these men of straw, they begin to realise that scarecrows are not enemies but friends because they advertise the presence of rich pickings! So let’s look at some of the scarecrows Satan sets up to stop us getting the blessings God wants us to enjoy.

Satan scares us into believing that to become a Christian we must give up our pleasures. This is totally untrue because as one new Christian said, “I can still get drunk anytime I want to, but now I never want to because God has given me an inner joy that fully satisfies.”

Satan scares us into thinking that we will be miserable if we have to give up sinful habits. As someone said, “That horse must be a Christian because it’s got such a long face!” But an American put it like this, “When Christ entered my heart He didn’t fix me up so that I couldn’t sin, but He did fix me up so that I couldn’t enjoy it!”

Satan also makes us afraid of reading the Bible in case we become religious fanatics. But it was the Bible that caused people to think soberly, and it was the Bible that delivered them from superstitious fears and established sensible scientific methods instead of magic.

Satan’s scarecrows are empty threats, so let’s perch thoughtfully and prayerfully on each one of them until our fears fade away and faith flourishes. We must never forget that Satan is the great enemy of our Lord Jesus Christ and he will use all his cunning to stop us turning from our sins to Christ and finding pardon and peace through faith in His death and spectacular resurrection.