When the Wasp Loomed: A Lesson in Trusting God

One Sunday, I went out on my balcony to pray and sit with God. After a few minutes of reading a passage and contemplating, a wasp hovered a few feet away. The wasp was persistent and wouldn’t leave. Afraid of getting stung, I went back inside.

“God, why won’t you take this bee away? I want to sit with You outside and enjoy Your creation,” I said.

God said, “I won’t let the bee sting you. Stay outside. Trust me.”

I went back outside again, but the wasp loomed. I did not trust God’s reassuring voice, thought I would get stung, and went inside again. This time, I stayed in for good.

I could hear God sigh in the depths of my heart and say, “If only you trusted me, child. You miss out on so much when you don’t trust me.”

I reflected on this and prayed over it. This situation is much like many circumstances in life. The enemy looms, maybe even right over our head or next to us. Something threatens or makes us anxious. We don’t want to get hurt so we try to control the situation. We flee, when God wants us to stay put. He wants to demonstrate His power.

Why do we flee? If you’re like me, sometimes avoiding pain is a natural reflex. We go through enough pain and suffering that we eventually learn to not trust, but when we don’t trust in His strength and power and try to control the outcome, we miss out on God’s best.

During my prayer time on this particular day, God directed me to Psalm 118:

“They surrounded me like bees; they blazed like fire among thorns; in the Lord’s name I crushed them. I was hard pressed and falling, but the Lord came to my help. The Lord, my strength and might, came to me as savior.”

There you have it: a lesson in trust and learning the strength of God from bees on a warm spring day.