You may have heard this saying from the sensational Nickelodeon character, Dora the Explorer, who made her worldwide debut in the early 2000s. "Swiper, no swiping" was usually said when Dora and her pet friend, Boots, came across their known bully, Swiper. Dora was always on an adventure through the jungle and her quests always involved learning. She spoke Spanish, and the writers used her adventures to teach the viewers some basic Spanish vocabulary. This show was always on in my house because I was the oldest of two younger siblings who were born around this very time. In fact, my sister loved Dora.
On January 6, 2019, at 1:30am, I heard, "Swiper, no swiping."
Now, there was no television or other electronics on at the time. The saying got louder and I finally woke up, grabbed my journal, and began writing. I opened my bible to Job chapter 15 and landed on verse five. The verse says, "Your sin prompts your mouth; you adopt the tongue of the crafty." At first glance with crumbs in my eyes from just awakening, I found no revelation and no relatedness to what I heard. My mind was telling me to return back to bed because this is going to be all night, but I began to get curious as to what exactly God was trying to say to me. So, I proceeded to read the entire passage. I noticed that Job's friends were with him during his lowest season and in conversation with him constantly. Through these conversations, he battled going back and forth about the complexities of their ideas concerning the reasons for his troubles.
In this show, the bully was a very unintelligent fox who loved stealing missions and even things from the two friends. I found that these two were always in a constant battle with this little fox. He would find his way on trails and they would begin shouting at him, "SWIPER, NO SWIPING!", which was code for leave my stuff alone or get away you fox. Now, when I thought about what God was saying, I was aware that with all that had been going on in my life, I felted cheated. I felt like I too had to continue to scream at people not to steal, take, or run with my ideas, my time or my love.
Have you ever felt like you needed to scream, "Swiper, no swiping!" at the enemy? I could truly sense this from Job with his friends. He had to continue to tell his friends he believed God anyway. Then, in many moments, he believed them and had to fight for his hope back. They were draining, and hope killers is what I'd like to call them. In small moments, I saw that they were trying to sound like they cared and had hope, but they didn't. This is when the scripture became evident; around these people, his mouth was prompted to speak that which wasn't true. It was words of the crafty.
Here's my point, we must assess who in our circle has the ability to scream "Swiper, no swiping!" As we see, Dora's crew was very small. She had her parents and she had Boots, but that was it. God, I'd like to believe, was the third party not seen. Although they had to go on crazy explorations to restore peace and grab possessions from the swiper fox, they always won in the end. So just like this show projects, you will win in the end! You will see that all of your possessions are restored and your family is in place.
Job had to wait on the Lord, and in his waiting, he had to place hope in the Lord to do a mighty shift in his life. I am encouraging you today to boldly scream, "SWIPER, NO SWIPING!!!"
The enemy cannot have your stuff; he cannot have your possessions, your marriage, your kids, your businesses...NOTHING! SCREAM and grab your friends who you can trust and GO GET YOUR STUFF!
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