Oh the sting!

Have you ever done the Fancy Wasp Run?  It has similar steps as the Scary Snake Shuffle.  I am not fond of either of these.  In fact, I don't like pain.  While a snake has the potential to cause a serious medical situation, I can't get past the fact of two fangs burying themselves in my leg or any other body part. 

A wasp on the other hand is just going to sting....but oh what a sting.  The other day I got in my car like any other day, oblivious to anything but my mission at the time.  I started the car and got to steppin'. I pulled out of my driveway and down the main road when I see it-a wasp.

I could not help it, I "immediately and suddenly applied my brakes" and began waving at the wasp with a flyer I had in my car.  Fortunately, I was at a traffic light that quickly turned red.  I was trying to roll my window down and shoo it out.  At the same time, I was trying to swat with one hand and cover my face with my arm.  I did not want to get stung!

Who does?  After all my rucus and antics, I decided I would get out of the car.  I put the flyer down, stopped fighting the wasp and quickly discovered that it wasn't even in my car.  The wasp was on the outside of my windshield.  Of course then I became superman.  I straightened up, cocked my head a little and said to myself "I wasn't afraid of that wasp, what harm could it do me-it's on the outside!"

We are like that in life.  For some of us, me included, we fear the enemy so much that it has the tendency to paralyze us.  We want to run from it, hide from it, swat it away, open the door so it can leave us alone and many other things.  Sometimes we may think we can not rid ourselves of it.  In doing so, it wins.  I believe that often the enemy just wants to succeed in frightening us.  When I am frightened, I can't think, I can't function, I can't move and if I can't do any of those things, what am I accomplishing?

I am an individual conditioned to maintain calm, think things through, analyze the situation and often make split second decisions. There is no time to fear.  Fear came after the fact, after you had an opportunity to brief the scenario.  I do not understand how I could do those things and make life changing decisions and yet let a wasp dictate my level of fear.

The enemy operates like that in many ways.  Because we allow it, the enemy taunts us.  We fear the sting of his word like "you're unworthy" or "if people only knew" or "who are you trying to kid?"  We swat at it hoping it will go away only to discover the more we swat the more our fear intensifies because the enemy is too close. 

God's word says "...he has not given us the spirit of fear" [2 Timothy 1:7] yet we allow that fear to overtake us and make us ineffective. I do the fancy wasp run.  I don't want anything to do with being this insect's target.  But in my fear, I become the enemy's target.  That happens because I fail to remember that "I am a child of God and that I did not receive a spirit that makes me a slave again to fear but I received the Spirit of sonship." [Romans 8:15]

The biggest thing that we forget is this...God is mighty [Jeremiah 10:6], God is powerful [Matthew 3:11], God is a living God [Joshua 3:10] whose arm is not to short to save!  The enemy is a liar [John 8:44] , the enemy has come to kill, steal and destroy, [John 10:10]and the enemy is on the outside of that windshield!  Nothing can come up against the mighty power of God!

So when you fear the sting of the enemy, know that God has given us weapons more than a piece of paper to swat with! Be strong in the Lord.


Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.  Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.  Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground...  Ephesians 6:12-13