In 2016, while we were in our previous home, we had the third occurrence of honey bees coming into our house during the 27 years we had lived there. As in the previous times, we could see that they were coming in through a gap where the outdoor siding met the brick on the end of the house. We consulted with many people who are knowledgeable about honey bees, and the consensus was that we would need to remove the siding to get to the nest. Simply fogging the bees, as I have previously done, would kill the current group of bees, but would not prevent new swarms of bees from coming. We needed to remove the nest, or else new bees would smell the honey in the nest and would return (as they had indeed done 3 times).
We made the decision to schedule our contractor to do the costly work of removing the siding. But he said that his workers could not do the work until the bees were killed. So, reluctantly, I fogged the bees. Then, through a providential sequence of events, my wife found a pest control company in a nearby town whose owner and one employee were bee keepers. They had in fact successfully removed bees from at least 6 homes near us in recent years! The owner told my wife that in all of the other cases, the nest was actually in the ceiling – in the space between the first floor and the second floor. He said that he would use a stethoscope to listen for the bees through the ceiling to locate the nest, and then simply cut a hole in the ceiling sheet rock and remove the nest.
Our joy at hearing this promising news then turned to despair, as we realized that just two days before, I had killed the bees in preparation for removing the siding! Without live bees still being in the nest, the guy would not be able to hear where the nest was. That night, my wife and I prayed, utilizing a spiritual principle that we had learned in years past. We reminded God that it had previously taken many years for another set of bees to return. But we needed bees NOW, in order for the guy to find and remove them now – so the messy ceiling repair could be done before the upcoming refinishing of our hardwood floors.
And you know what? God sent new bees within the next day or two! And the guy found and removed the nest – filling a five gallon bucket with the honeycomb he removed through the hole he cut in the ceiling!
God used these honey bees to remind us of a powerful principle of prayer – the power of crying out to God. My wife and I had audibly cried out to God, and He answered us in an amazing way.
There was a fervency in the prayers of biblical saints – a fervency that is inherent in crying out. Charles Spurgeon said, “He who prays without fervency does not pray at all.” There is a distinction between simple prayer and crying out to God – the level of fervency. The following are only a few of the many Scriptures that address this principle:
'Call to Me, and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.' (Jeremiah 33:3 NASB)
And call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me." (Psalm 50:15 NASB)
In my distress I called upon the LORD, And cried to my God for help; He heard my voice out of His temple, And my cry for help before Him came into His ears. (Psalm 18:6 NASB)
These verses all use the same Hebrew word that is translated “call.” This word literally means to call out to (i.e. by name). It comes from a root word that incorporates the idea of accosting a person. (Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon)
(Application: In other words, not a feeble utterance, but a heartfelt and earnest plea.)
The righteous cry , and the LORD hears And delivers them out of all their troubles. (Psalm 34:17 NASB)
The Hebrew word that is translated in this verse as “cry” means to cry out, to summon. It refers to shouting, complaining loudly, pleading for relief or justice, calling for help. (The Complete WordStudy Dictionary)
…and Samuel cried [Hebrew, shrieked] to the LORD for Israel and the LORD answered him. (1 Samuel 7:9b NASB)
Notice that crying out to God means that we audibly pray to God, in a loud and passionate voice, expressing to Him our plea for mercy. Although God certainly hears and responds to our silent prayers, there are certain situations that call for these intense, audible prayers. As we cry out to God in this way, it causes us to focus intently upon Him, and it increases our trust and dependency upon Him.
O God, I can indeed thank You for allowing those bees to return so many times, because You used them to remind me and my wife of this powerful principle of crying out to You in our difficulties. You were so merciful to answer our pleas for help! May I never forget this principle. Help me to encourage others to do this as well.
Today, I encourage you to "Reflect on This."