HOW TO GET YOUR EDGE BACK
In last weeks blog I shared about losing your edge. In 2 Kings we meet a young man who had literally lost his edge. He had signed up to be a mentored by Elisha. You could imagine the excitement he must have had to be under this great man who had raised the dead, parted seas, and was the powerful prophet of God. The young man arrives at his mentorship to find they are out of room. He and the others are given the assignment to build housing for the prophetic school. This must have felt like a huge let down!
Let’s think for a moment about the young prophet-in-training. There he stood at the edge of the Jordan, not prophesying to anyone, not speaking forth any great oracles of God to the nations; just a person who had been stopped cold. The word in his heart said he would be a prophet, but his world said he was a woodcutter without an ax. He easily could have tossed the handle aside and given up.
Instead, he worked hard to do what was needed at the time only to have his ax fall into the river. He had been given just one specific assignment, and even at that he failed. The young prophet calls upon Elisha who throws a stick into the water. The ax comes to the surface and the prophet-in-training reached out his hand and got his edge back. He had to partner with the miracle that happened right before his eyes. He put his hand in the water, picked up the ax, and got back to work.
Are you in a season where your word doesn’t match your world? Faith is trusting God no matter how impossible the odds are.
Let me remind you that as a born-again believer you serve the same God Elisha served! He is the God of the impossible. Now is the time to make up your mind that you will believe Him for what seems to be impossible, and stop believing the lies of the enemy, who wants to see you defeated.It’s so important to be determined that you are going to get your edge back. Make up your mind!
Also, there is power when we confess the realities of life circumstances. Perhaps you need to confess that you have lost your edge. The young man did not keep silent. He immediately sought help from God’s prophet to regain what he lost.
You will not get anything accomplished by remaining in denial about your situation.
Going through religious motions day after day is no way to live. That is not Gods plan for your life. If you have lost your passion, if you have lost your edge, be swift to confess it to someone who can pray with you and help you find your way back. Take action while the opportunity exists.
Elisha did not grab the ax head and put it back on the handle. The young man had to do that for himself. God will not do for you what you can do for yourself.
You’d think that if the miracle could cause the piece of iron to float, it also could have reattached to the handle! God intends for you to do your part in regaining the edge.
“If the ax is dull, and one does not sharpen the edge, then he must use more strength.”
Sure, you can cut with a dull ax, powering along in your own strength until your energy runs out. But the writer of Ecclesiastes is saying, “There’s a better way.”
I can’t image trying to cut down a tree with a dull ax. What an enormous amount of unnecessary strength that would require! Yet this is what many people do in their daily walk with God, all the while wondering why they are wiped out and defeated.
Partner with God and let His strength be your strength, and His passion your passion.