Do you ever feel like you’re a failure?
Like you’re not doing what you’re supposed to do?
Like you’re in some sort of a difficult place
and you don’t really know how you got there?
Maybe you’re being honed.
Honing means to sharpen, to smooth and sharpen a blade.
A few other words for honing:
sharpening, whetting, grinding, edging, polishing
Iron sharpeneth iron;
so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend. Psalm 27:17
We didn’t make ourselves.
Once we put ourselves in the hands of the Lord, we are to follow Him.
We are to learn and obey and do what we’re supposed to do.
Put the flesh under submission and all the other directives in the bible.
The directives and commandments we know.
The ones that look good on paper, that even sound easy.
Then, when it comes to actually participating in the process,
well, it’s more of getting out of the way, letting God do His work in us.
That is not so easy:
Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker!
Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth.
Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou?
or thy work, He hath no hands? Isaiah 45:9
The encouragement is: Let Him do His work.
That is not painless.
That entails laying down one’s life, being humble,
allowing the rough edges to be smoothed off.
The process of honing.
Ironing out the wrinkles.
Being confident of this very thing, that
He which hath begun a good work in you
will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: Philippians 1:6
We all want the end results.
To be like Jesus, to be patient and kind
and do all the wonderful things we know we are capable of,
to be fully in control ourselves,
always say and do the right things like He did when He walked on the Earth, then we find out there is more,
we never seem to fully arrive.
That is part of being on Earth.
That is part of being human.
Failing and accepting that we are not God.
We have faults and deficits and we will not ever be perfect while here,
not until we meet Him face to face and He transforms us.
The more the better, but never completely the best, like Him.
We stay humble, we get more understanding,
we see more of Him inside of us,
we can see the work He has accomplished in our lives, in our hearts,
as we give up more, He can remake, remold and reshape us
into vessels that reflect Jesus.
Since the word of the Lord is referred to as a sharp-two-edged sword,
maybe by sharpening us, we can be more proficient in proclaiming His word,
in proclaiming the gospel? That thought is glorious.
And He had in His right hand seven stars:
and out of His mouth went a sharp twoedged sword:
and His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. Revelation 1:16
Perhaps this is the end result, to be used by Jesus in this way:
And He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword;
in the shadow of His hand hath He hid me,
and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath He hid me; Isaiah 49:2
Honor and blessing and praise to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.