Sharpening Your Axe

I heard the story of two lumberjacks who decided to have a competition of who could cut down the most trees in a day. One went one way and the other a different way. After about an hour the first lumberjack noticed the other had quit chopping. He worked even harder and thought the second one was taking a break. About every hour the second one would stop chopping for about ten minutes throughout the day. At the end of the day the first one was excited to show off how much he had done. When they went to look at the second one’s trees, he had cut nearly double. The first one exclaimed, “How? You took a break every hour!” The second one replied, “I wasn’t taking a break each hour. I was sharpening my axe.”

Paul was Timothy’s mentor in the faith and ministry. We get some insight into that relationship in the two books written to encourage Timothy. Paul was teaching him how to sharpen his axe as a believer. In 2 Timothy 2:15 Paul encourages him to study the Word to show himself approved by God and so he could correctly explain the truth. In 2 Timothy 2:3 he’s encouraged to endure hardship and to not avoid it so that he can please the lord. Then in 2 Timothy 1:6 he’s encouraged to fan into flame his gifts. Paul understood that living in this world will dull our axe blade and that to be an effective Christian, we must constantly be sharpening ourselves.

Ecclesiastes 10:10 says, “Using a dull ax requires great strength, so sharpen the blade. That’s the value of wisdom; it helps you succeed” (NLT). A dull blade still cuts, but it requires more strength and effort. Implementing daily spiritual disciplines will help keep you sharp and effective. To do that you need to study in the Bible, examine your heart, renew your mind, put God’s Word into practice and pray. Jesus provided examples of this by withdrawing from the crowd to be alone with God. When is the last time you stepped away to purposefully sharpen your axe? We must take time each day to sharpen our axe so we can be more effective for the Kingdom in a world that tries to dull it every day.

Photo by Olly Dow on Unsplash