The first seven verses of II Kings 6 tells the interesting story of the lost axe.
The prophets were crowded in a small living area. They needed some room. They asked Elisha if they could get some wood and expand their “dorm”. After he gave them his approval, one of them asked him to go with them. He agreed to join them.
They went to the Jordan River and began cutting down trees. One of the guys had his axehead go flying off the handle. It went into the river and was lost. He was panic stricken. Only an extremely wealthy person could afford a metal tool of this type. He had borrowed it and no doubt could not afford to repay the owner what it was worth.
The guy who lost the axehead immediately told Elisha what had occurred. Elisha asked him where the axehead had fallen. He showed Elisha where it entered the water. Elisha cut a stick and threw it into the water. Immediately the axehead floated to the top of the river’s surface. Elisha told him to go in and retrieve the axehead. The servant waded into the river, reached out and got the axehead. I suppose it goes without saying that he breathed a huge sigh of relief.
Nice story. So what?
How does this story apply to us today?
There are a lot of lessons that are applicable to our daily lives roughly 3,000 years later. The axehead signifies God’s power on your life. Remember that in John 5:15 Jesus says “without me ye can do nothing“.
He didn’t say we couldn’t achieve much. He didn’t say we could achieve a little.
He said without his hand on my life I can do NOTHING. NIL. ZIP. NADA. ZERO. It’s a waste of time for me to try to accomplish anything in my own strength.
I sure hate to admit it but there have been many times in my life when I worked as hard as I could but nothing happened. I was chopping away. I was chopping hard, sweating profusely, and getting callouses on my hands. But I made no progress. No chips were flying. I was swinging an axe handle but I had no axehead – no power of God on my life. To make matters even worse, I faked it. I just kept chopping away. I worked really hard and hoped people would be impressed with all the effort and activity I was demonstrating. I was too prideful to admit that I was living a powerless life. Without the touch of God on our lives we are all wasting our time. Nothing of eternal value gets accomplished without the touch of God. He makes it happen. He gets the glory.
Note that when the young fella lost the axehead he admitted it. Immediately. He wanted God’s power on his efforts. He didn’t wait one second.
Notice also that Elisha asked him where he had lost the axehead. Maybe you’ve lost the power of God on your life because of the friends you allow to drag you away from God. Maybe you allowed selfishness to take you away from a focus on service. Maybe pride has caused you to desire glory for yourself to crowd out glorifying God. Maybe pornography on the internet is draining your spiritual strength. Maybe materialism has sidetracked you by making you think you need more. Envy, ego, neglect, doubt… There are just so many things that can rob our spiritual power. Just tell God where you lost it. (He already knows anyway.)
Coaches know that players make mistakes. They understand. But they don’t want a player to make the same mistake over and over again. God wants us to acknowledge our sin to Him and move ahead.
When the young guy told Elisha where he lost the axehead, Elisha tossed a small piece of wood into the water. The axehead floated. Elisha told him to go get it. (Hey, God doesn’t do everything for us. He expects us to do our part. He’s just not into blessing our “Lone Ranger” routine).
My advice? Go buy an axe handle at a hardware store. Write II Kings 6:1-7 on it. Put it where you can see it to remind you that we need God’s power on our lives.
Share your thoughts and comments with all of us.
-Coach T
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