A New Day

By: Pastor Johnie Akers   

Psalm 34:19, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.”  A beekeeper once told Dr. F.B. Meyer how some of the young bees are nurtured to ensure their healthy development. The queen lays each egg in a six-sided cell which is filled with enough pollen and honey to feed upon until it reaches a certain stage of maturity. The top is then sealed with a capsule of wax. When the occupant has exhausted its supply of nourishment, the time has come for the tiny creature to be released from its confinement. But what wrestling and straining it endures to get through that wax seal. The opening is so narrow that in the agony of exit, the bee rubs off the membrane that encases its wings. Thus, when it finally does emerge, it is able to fly! The beekeeper said that one time a moth got into the hive and devoured the wax capsules. As a result, the young bees crawled out without any effort or trouble, but they couldn’t fly.  The absence of the struggle, left the constricting membrane on their wings, and thus they were crippled. Soon the mature insects, seeing the pitiful, unproductive state of new arrivals, instinctively proceeded to sting them to death, ending their hopeless existence.    The Psalmist in our Scripture lesson today paints an honest picture:  “Many are the afflictions of the righteous.”  Life is not a panacea.  There are thorns among roses.  Yet it is the very nature of the struggle that we have in the midst of our afflictions that gives us the strength for our deliverance.  Affliction and struggle builds character and resolve.  When the Psalmist continues:  “But the Lord delivereth him out of them all,” he infers to the already innate deliverance present in the affliction itself.  The solution is built into the problem.  The strength gained during the process of the struggle, is the very strength needed to overcome the struggle.  Just as the struggle from the capsule, strips the bee of the hindering membrane from its wings, so your struggle, will strip away hindering influences from your life, and allow you to fly into the glorious light of a bright new day.