Christian Living

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There are all sorts of calamities in the world today. From economic turmoil in recessions and inflations, to earthquakes, floods, wars, disease, hunger and just about everything that can bring unease into the heart of a human being. Even as Christians, we continue being bombarded from all sides. Alongside these, however, there remain beautiful landscapes, craftsmanship, creativity and creation that remind us of our awesome God.

With all that is happening around us, Church has its fair share of Business As Usual (BAU) which has disintegrated into Service As Usual (SAU).

We should be uncomfortable with the status quo because our zeal and zest for God seems to have gone; our axe heads seem to have fallen down. In the book of 2Kings 6:1-7, we meet the man whose borrowed axe head fell into the Jordan River. In our discernment of the issues, we might even consider him careless.

The axe head represents God’s power which is given to us to do His work. But since our axe head has fallen, we have no zest for Christ and therefore want to maintain the status quo, knowing that we are saved ourselves but at the same time not willing to bring other people into the knowledge of Christ. A question that we should ask ourselves on a daily basis is how we have furthered the kingdom on that particular day. This is because each and every one of us has been created for the purpose of working for Christ. In Ephesians 2:10 we reminded that we are created to do works that he prepared in advance for us to do.

There are several things that we should therefore do to recover our cutting edge.

Firstly we must be concerned that our cutting edge is not in place and get really worried that something is actually wrong. We mustn’t continue hitting at trees with an axe that has no axe-head or with one which is completely blunt.

Secondly, like the man whose axe head fell off, we should talk it out. In 1Kings 6: we see how the man whose axe head fell called attention to himself, “Oh, my Lord”, he cried out, “It was borrowed”. The prophet Elisha then helped him retrieve it. In our salvation walk, when we notice that our fire for Christ has gone down, then we too should confess it to our fellow brethren so that they can walk with us in prayer and see us back to the path of resurgence.

Thirdly, we should comprehend the situation. The man whose axe-head fell immediately remembered that it was borrowed property. We too should pray each morning and comprehend life. This is not our life, it is borrowed and therefore we should not negotiate with it. Our lives were paid for by a high price, the death of Jesus Christ. It is no longer we who live but he who lives through us.

Fourthly is to get back to that place where the axe head got lost. In our lives, we should look back and see exactly when we started losing the fire. It might have been caused by an activity we have taken up and which eats up into our devotional time or it may well be the company we keep. Friends define us and it is no wonder that 2Corinthians 6:14 asks us not to yoked with non-believers. Let us also not entertain anything that the scriptures disallow.

Fifthly, we have to confront whatever it is and deal with it. This entails abandoning all human endeavour and taking up that which God is giving us. No one can deal with our situations for us; the buck ultimately stops with us.

Lastly is to be committed to the new lives that have now been restored to us. The man whose axe-head fell into the Jordan was a wiser man for it. Let us now be the true salt and light of the earth. Let us recover our cutting edge knowing that this time round, we will be better.

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