29 Jan Sharper
Read Hebrews 4:11-13
Most modern knives and blades are sharpened by a few passes through an electric sharpener but true experts still prefer to use a whetstone. Made up of rock and grit and wet with water, the whetstone is designed to provide friction that hones the edge of a blade. With a whetstone, you decide how fine the grit is, how narrow the angle, how hard the pressure to determine if the knife is as sharp as it can possibly be. With a whetstone, the outcome is all up to you.
The most important aspect of knife sharpening is frequency. The more often you use the blade, the more regularity you will need in taking time to sharpen it. In essence, the more active you are, the more time-outs you have to take.
Hebrews 4 gives us the powerful analogy of the word of God being quick, powerful and sharper than a double-edge sword. To be clear, God’s word never grows dull but we who wield it do. We must take time out to go to the whetstone. We need to allow the adversity of challenges to be the grit that sharpens us. With the water of the Holy Spirit, these moments aside make us bolder, braver, more steady, assured and sharper than ever before.
How much pressure and effort you apply to the whetstone is up to you. A friend used to say, “You have as much of God as you really want.” That does not seem to be true but we know it is. The Lord is always willing to give us more if we pursue more of Him. Like the whetstone, the effort is tied directly to the outcome. The Holy Spirit is waiting to refine us to be as powerful for the Kingdom of God as we can be. It must be our decision to take the time out, go to the Rock of Christ Jesus and allow Him to do the internal work that makes us sharper.