As I sit in my office, I look out the window. Movement catches my eye. There is a wasp’s nest in the upper corner of my window on the other side of the glass. The wasps industriously move over the surface of the nest, tending to whatever they are doing. There are six wasps that I can see, but there are probably more.

These wasps cannot hurt me because they are incapable of getting through the glass. I know I should deal with them, and so I plan to buy some wasp spray and come back at night and destroy the nest so they can’t hurt anybody coming to our church. The only stinging that should be done here is by the Holy Spirit who pricks consciences and convicts of sin.

Two thoughts occur to me in relation to this. These wasps are like the problems in our lives that we face every day. Sometimes we can see the problem clearly, but because we are in no immediate danger, we do nothing about it. I have a sapling growing in the backyard of my new house that is about two feet high. It needs to be pulled because it’s right up against the house. If someone had pulled it when it was smaller, it would have been much easier. I gave it a tug this morning while mowing, and it didn’t budge. Problems are like that: if we don’t deal with them when they’re small, they become bigger and harder to uproot. I need to deal with these wasps before someone gets stung.

Secondly, it occurs to me that God is like the glass in this scenario. If we have trusted in Christ as Savior, nothing on earth can harm us without His permission. In the same way that the glass prevents the wasps from hurting me even though I can get within an inch of their nest, I need not fear what man can do to me, because God has promised never to leave me nor forsake me. The problems in my life cannot hurt me unless it is in His will that they do so. In that sense, I cannot be harmed outside of His will unless He fails, and He never will.

Romans 8:37 “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.”

Philippians 1:6 “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”