An Axe and A Butter Knife

Hey everybody….Happy August!

We are in the eighth month of the year already.

Where has time gone?

It’s back to school for the kiddos. I hope your summer has been both fun and relaxing.

 

Today is the beginning of another series entitled Growing Pains and today’s lesson has a subtitle of An Axe and A Butter Knife.

So let’s jump right in…

Self-love and growth go hand in hand. We must grow to get to the good part.

When it comes to our personal growth, we must routinely analyze our life to see if we’re making progress or if we’ve been stuck in the same place for quite a while and don’t even realize it.

God never planned for his children to ride the struggle bus all our lives, live in the past, be consumed with what other people are doing and be in the same place emotionally, physically, spiritually and even financially that we were a year ago.

We should always be evolving, moving forward and advancing His kingdom in the earth. It is something that He expects and requires of us.

But how do we get there? How do we improve our lives? How does growth happen?

Of course cultivating our relationship with God is always first, having a consistent prayer life, doing his word, notice I didn’t say just reading or knowing it…because that means nothing without action….and there will also be other believers that God will place in our lives along the way to sharpen us.

 

Proverbs 27:17 (NLT)   As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.

 

If we can’t be lovingly corrected or challenged to change, we will never grow. Our life will never improve beyond where we are right now, as change requires confronting the behaviors, patterns and habits that don’t serve us and contradict who we say we are.

As Christians, we respond to each other as either an axe or a butter knife.  Hopefully but the end of this blog, you will be able to determine which one you are.

Let me explain this analogy by digging a little deeper into the whole concept of an axe and a butter knife.

A butter knife, hence the name, is typically to cut butter, spread butter, can use it make a good peanut butter and jelly sandwich or it can be used for any food item that is soft and doesn’t require a sharp blade. The blade of this knife is totally dull and smooth and can’t cut through much of anything.

 

What is an axe?

It’s it a tool often used for chopping wood, it has a steel blade attached at a right angle with a wooden handle. I am sure many of us have seen one or even used it a time or two.

Let’s now compare a butter knife and an axe to our spiritual lives.

The type of blade we use as Christians will determine how effective we will be.

A person who professes to live for Christ but has a butter knife mindset, only wants to only hear the soft things, the good about themselves, things that don’t challenge their fragile ego. Correction to them feels like character assassination. They avoid healthy confrontation and are the victim of their own story. They hear correction with an ear of offense and with ears of their past. They’re prideful and end up sending away or attacking the ones God sent to help them.

 

Proverbs 9:8-9  (AMP)

8.Do not correct a scoffer (who foolishly ridicules and takes no responsibility for his error) or he will hate you;

Correct a wise man (who learns from his error), and he will love you.

9. Give instruction to a wise man and he will become even wiser; teach a righteous man and he will increase his learning.

 

Maybe as adults, we don’t like correction because as kids we were scolded and punished in a harmful way or we were told that we would never be anything or we’re a failure. So as we get older, we hear with those same ears. We think people are putting us down or hating us but in reality they are trying to help us see a version of ourselves that we haven’t realized yet.

But the most beneficial we can do, no matter what age we are is to be open to God’s correction, even when it comes thru people.

We must allow God to refine us so we become more like him. This process is called sanctification which is ongoing and never ends.

 

When it comes to an axe approach concerning our walk with God…

The blade of an axe is heavy, strong and solid. It has the ability to do hard things. When the blade is sharp it can perform with ease, doesn’t require a lot of elbow grease or physical exertion. An axe with a sharp blade is a powerful and efficient tool.

But even when using an axe, if the blade is dull, it will take more physical strength to get the job done. You will end up doing double or triple the amount of work and probably injure yourself in the process.

Doing things in our own strength will wear us down and  cause unnecessary suffering. We’ll be laboring with no results. If we are wasting time toiling in areas of our lives that we should already have victory over then that means our blade is dull and we’re long overdue for a sharpening.

 

Ecclesiastes 10:10 (AMP)

10. If the axe is dull and he does not sharpen its edge, then he must exert more strength; but wisdom [to sharpen the axe] helps him succeed [with less effort].

 

Now let’s discuss 3 things…

1. How do we sharpen our lives?
2. What does sharpening look like?
3. What does sharpening sound like?

 

We’re going to bypass what it feels like because living by our feelings is what has caused our lives to get dull in the first place.

 

First of all, how do we sharpen our lives…so that we don’t stay stuck and can move forward.

Just like an axe or pencil can’t sharpen itself, we must have God and other likeminded people to help improve our lives.

We start with God’s word which is Super Sharp, precise and will never get dull. It should be our go to for everything but reading, quoting and being able to memorize it means nothing if we refuse to do what it says.

 

Hebrews 4:12 (ERV)

12. God’s word is alive and working. It is sharper than the sharpest sword and cuts all the way into us. It cuts deep to the place where the soul and the spirit are joined. God’s word cuts to the center of our joints and our bones. It judges the thoughts and feelings in our hearts.

 

Now that I know how to sharpen my life through my relationship with God, his word and others…. what does sharpening look like?

It’s certainly not pretty or a feel good activity…. let’s just get that out of the way.

With any sharpening process, there is friction, heat, sparks may fly, there is a grinding and tearing away of any buildup that caused it to become dull in the first place.

We have to remember; our flesh is always in constant conflict with the spirit of God that lives inside of us.

Being sharpened irritates our flesh and it will not like being called on the carpet, so instead of taking it personal, remember the reason for the battle.

Just like gold is purified by fire, the fire burns off the dross or the impurities from the gold…same thing happens when we sharpen each other….it’s part of the sanctification process that I discussed earlier.

 

We’ve discussed how we sharpen our lives, what sharpening looks like and now that we have this friction and sparks are flying…. What does being sharpened sound like? 

When living from our flesh, our physical ears don’t want to hear anything that challenges our way of doing things, even if it’s coming from God, our pastor, parents, trusted friends, or mentors.

We take correction as being an attack from the devil but think about it, would the enemy to your greatness ever confront you about something that would make you better and more like Christ? Absolutely not!

We all have blind spots, things that we are doing that are totally wrong, maybe we’re unaware or have gotten comfortable and don’t want to change. If we only want a YES man around us, some one that will agree with everything we do, tell us how lovely we are, tip toe around our issues, ignore the elephant in the room, then they are no benefit to you nor are you to them.

God’s sharpening of my life required that I be open to hearing some hard truths about why my life was in the state that it was in. And although what he said was unpleasant to my ears and my ego, his approach was full of compassion, mercy and love. His chastisement felt like love to me, I knew he was only doing it because He had more for me and expected more of me.

 

Hebrews 12:6 and 11 (NIV)

6. because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”

11. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

 

We all know the difference between criticism and love, it has a different sound. Criticism sounds like someone putting us down, saying mean and hurtful things to deflate our self-esteem, critiquing our every move or picking our life apart, that’s not sharpening, that’s judging.

 

In closing

I know we’re grown in age and maybe even in the number of years we’ve been saved but we must always be childlike when it comes to God, we must always be teachable even when it comes thru people.

Let’s pray to have ears to hear and not through the ears of our insecurities, trauma, rejection or disappointment. Let’s ask God to bring people into our lives to get rid of the dullness, to help sharpen us so we can help sharpen others too. And when he does, be open to receiving what they have to say.

Encouraging ourselves is great but sometimes we won’t confront ourselves beyond what feels comfortable. There is more inside of us and God has more for us BUT it requires that we’re open to having our weaknesses brought to the forefront so we can correct them.

So, my advice to all of us is to let the grinding, the friction, and sharpening…let it happen.

Welcome it! Embrace it!

See it as a gift, wrapped in a beautiful bow from your heavenly Father who truly loves you.

If we keep taking the easy route by sparing our feelings, we will never see the best version of ourselves and will only be a mere fraction of who God intended us to be.

Yes, God really does have an amazing plan for us BUT part of that plan is being open to HIS correction…however he decides to send it.

So, ask God to place some iron in your path and let the sparks fly! You’ll be better for it! Thank me later! ????

 

 

Please feel free to leave a comment if this blog resonates with you. I would love to hear your thoughts.

Also join me on my YouTube channel, Lessons with Leslie. There is a new video every Friday and also the Lessons with Leslie Podcast is available every first and third Friday.

Thanks for coming back and hanging out with me. I love it when you do!

I’ll chat with you in September.

I celebrate and appreciate you my fellow Party of ONE!

God’s best always,

Leslie

 

 

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