Sharpening your edge

A few months ago, while I was brushing my teeth, I sensed God say to me that I was "losing my edge". I was taken aback by that. The week had been an extremely busy one, and this had caused me to be disengaged from my lifesource, Jesus, the vine Himself. It was a warning from the Lord, but one I appreciated. I would rather get some gentle chastisement from my Lord than live under His best for me.

I didn't know at that time that there is a bible verse that contains the same principle ... that is, until Ps Yang shared this verse from Ecc 10:10 today.

"If the ax is dull, And one does not sharpen the edge, Then he must use more strength; But wisdom brings success."

Here is a devotional entry from worthydevotions.com that resonates:

"When I was younger I used to take an ax and cut up firewood from the woods behind our house. The one thing I always did was sharpen my axe! A dull axe meant harder work chopping through fallen trees. The sharper the ax the less effort and energy required for the task. So I learned early on to sharpen my ax before venturing into the woods, and I saved myself a lot of time and energy. (Besides I was a small kid, growing up, so I needed all the help I could get! ;) )

I see a lesson here. How many of us are exerting so much energy for the Kingdom, but are working with dull axes? We need to sharpen our spiritual lives, get focused in prayer and spend deep time in the Word. Then, when we are "out in the woods", working for the Kingdom our effectiveness will be greatly multiplied because our axes are sharp!

Don't get so busy that your ax becomes dull. Remember that your devotion to the Lord and His word will sharpen your spiritual life, especially before you start the day. Prioritize your devotional life and watch how your "edge" will cut through the problems, obstacles and difficult situations, like a hot knife through butter!