Sharpen
Your Ax! - Bill Bright
Dear
friends:
Do
you sometimes find yourself trying to do more and more for the Lord but with
lesser and lesser results?
You
may be like the young man I heard about who applied for a job as a logger.
The foreman said, "I don't know. Let me see how long it takes
you to cut down this tree."
Eager
to demonstrate his ability and strength, the young man quickly cut down the big
tree. The foreman was very impressed, and said, "You can start
tomorrow!"
The
young man started the job right away and worked hard for just a few days.
Then the foreman came up to him and said, "This is your last day.
Please pick up your paycheck when you leave."
Stunned
at this news, the young man asked, "What did I do wrong?"
The
foreman replied, "We are letting you go today because you've fallen
behind. Our daily felling charts show that you've dropped from first
place when you arrived until now you are in last place."
"But
I don't understand," the young man objected. "I get here before
anyone else, I do not leave until after everyone else is gone, and I know I
work as hard as anyone else."
The
tough old foreman, feeling a moment of sympathy for the young man, thought for
a moment and asked, "How often have you sharpened your ax?"
The
young man replied, "None, really. I've been working so hard that I
have not had the time to sharpen it."
This
sad story can be so true of many Christians in their walk and ministry.
They mean well and they work very hard and conscientiously, but because
they fail to keep their ax sharpened, their results are lacking.
Our
ax is our time spent reading and studying God's Word, the Bible, and our times
of prayer.
Our Lord Jesus set the example and prayed constantly, and He exhorted us to pray. And the apostle Paul wrote, "Pray at all times and on every occasion in the power of the Holy Spirit. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all Christians everywhere" (Ephesians 6:18, NLT).
Studying
the Bible is important because "All Scripture is inspired by God and is
useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our
lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right. It is God's
way of preparing us in every way, fully equipped for every good thing God wants
us to do" (2 Timothy 3:16-17, NLT).
If
prayer and God's Word were important for and needed by the Son of God and for
the great apostle Paul, how much more do we need it?
Let us never be too busy to pray and read God's Word, and under gird all that we do with prayer and God's Word. Otherwise, the more work we do, the duller we'll get!
Yours
for fulfilling the Great Commission each year until our Lord returns,
Bill Bright
Bill Bright
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