No good tradesman would willingly work very long with a blunt iron. “If the iron be blunt, and he does not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength: but wisdom is profitable to direct” (Eccl. 10:10). Good work demands a good instrument, and a good workman will see, if possible, that his tools are kept in good repair, sharp and fit for use. So, those who serve the Great Master should see that their spiritual weapons do not get out of order and unfit for the important work for which they are intended.
One of the effects of this world on the spiritual builder is that the keenness of the spiritual life is sometimes blunted, and the once useful tool has to be laid aside. A poor edge demands more strength, and a tool that has lost its edge is of little service, causing much annoyance and considerable loss.It is this that exhausts God’s workers–putting more energy into it, but getting less results out of it.
Both spiritual history and spiritual experience tell us how easily the Lord’s tool may become blunt. Psalm 51 tells us how David lost his edge through a lack of watchfulness. And the edge disappeared, too, from Samson’s weapon through compromise, rendering it useless for God. Peter’s edge grew as blunt as the sword he wielded the night of the betrayal of his Lord through self-confidence.
Thus many who have been keen and bright in the service of the Redeemer have allowed their spiritual testimony to become blunt and useless for their Lord in the great work. The iron has not been kept whetted, and defeat has taken the place of victory. But it is here that “wisdom is profitable to direct.”
How to keep one’s soul whetted for God demands surely the spiritual direction that comes only from above. The soul of the servant is kept in the daily consciousness of the Master’s presence:
The Whetstone of Prayer
“John Wesley’s conversation is good,” said Dr. Johnson, “but he is never at leisure. He is always obliged to go at a certain hour.” John Wesley would not stay longer than one hour in any company unless there was fresh prayer at the end of the hour. He made it a practice to keep his soul whetted for God by prayer.
The Experience of Faith
Another influence to keep the edge on our lives for God is faith at work. Not so much the holding of faith as a doctrine, nor the believing only of what faith may accomplish, but the experience of the work of faith in the progress of believing life. To find God in your own life, helping you up the hill; to see Him, in answer to your prayer of faith, helping another along a thorny road, is an invigoration of the soul, a sharpening of the spiritual life, a whetting of the Lord’s instrument that keeps the heart useful for God.
Faith, says one, “builds a bridge from this world to the next;” and faith, too, brings heaven to earth and fills the soul of the recipient with praise.
The Realization of Hope
This has kept many a soul from becoming blunt. Hope makes not ashamed (Rom. 5:5). It is no vain thing to wait on the Lord (Isa. 65:23; Isa. 40:31). Worldly hopes, however apparently well-founded, prove to be an illusion, but those that knock at heaven’s door find that sooner or later it opens. He who seeks for the glory of God is sure to find in God’s own time. He who asks will ultimately receive. In this way the iron is kept sharp and at the disposal of Him who knows so well how to use it for His own glory and the blessing of man.
“Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord” (2 Cor. 6:17). The true way to act on the hearts and consciences of men of the world is to stand in decided separation from them, while dealing in perfect grace toward them,” wrote C. H. Mackintosh.
Don’t be caught, like David, with your armor off; or like Samson, fraternizing with the enemy; or, like Peter, trusting in stubborn hearts and rusty swords.