Have you lost your spiritual edge?
As followers of Christ we can sometimes lose something spiritual in nature, we can lose our passion for God or the joy of our salvation.
Before we read the story there’s a few things to highlight:
- Iron in Old Testament times was a very valuable resource and the young prophet was a student who was poor and had borrowed the axe. So the student was desperate to find the axe, as if it hadn’t been found he would have had to pay it back somehow. This story tells us that the God of the universe cares about the details in our lives.
- Some context for this story is that after Elijah went to heaven Elisha started mentoring the next generation of prophets and set up a school, which was increasing in size.
2 Kings 6:1-7
God knows how to help you find what you didn’t mean to lose. Those of us who have lost something in our spiritual lives, know that God is a God of restoration.
How have you lost your spiritual edge? And if so how do you get back your spiritual edge?
- Be honest about where you lost it?
- In v6 Elisha asked the young prophet where the axe head had fallen. In other words Elisha’s saying, it’s not gone, it’s just where you lost it.
- Where did you lose your spiritual edge? We can often look back and pin point where we started to slide, e.g. I remember hanging out with people I really shouldn’t have, I used to pray and then stopped, I was hurt by someone in church and I blamed God.
- So let’s be honest about when the issue started.
- With God’s help you can take back what you lost, we can lift it out (v6-7)
- We’ve seen this same principle in Elisha’s other miracles. In the ditches story, only God can bring the water but you need to dig a ditch, only God can multiply the oil but you need to bring the jars. Only God can make the axe head float but you have to pull it out of the water.
- Often when we hear this and our faith starts to rise, believing that you can get back your spiritual edge, it’s then that a little voice in your ear comes saying ‘you can’t, it’s too late, you’re too far gone’ those are lies from the enemy. It’s never too late to get back what you thought you had lost.
- We cannot make an axe head float but we can pick it out of the water, you do what you can do and trust God to do the rest.
- You cannot create your own spiritual passion and faith, but the bible says that faith comes by hearing the word of God, so put yourself in a place where you can hear God’s word and it’ll build your faith. You know God hears your prayers, so choose to pray even when you don’t feel like it.
In Revelation 2:4-5 Jesus speaking to a church similar to ours today. His word for them and to many of us is repent and return to the things you first did. When we lose that spiritual edge and apathy comes in, these are some things we can do to repent and reconnect with God:
- Go to a different location, a different part of your town or go into nature, somewhere different from your normal.
- Fasting from food.
- Worship, spend time alone just worshipping the Lord.
- Give, some of us need to physically tithe to the Lord, as it breaks the ties to the materialism of this world.
- Reconnect by speaking the word of Jesus, by sharing it with friends and colleagues.
Our God is a God of restoration, he says I will restore you to a place far above where you once were, by you doing the things you first did. Another biblical example of this is the story of Nehemiah rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. The walls were built with the existing rubble and we’re to rebuild our lives spiritually with the stones we already know, by worshiping, reading our bible, praying etc. By doing those things it’ll restore our first love.
Whatever your background, no matter how far you’ve drifted God will restore you, God will bless you, and why? Because we serve a God who specialises in helping people find what they didn’t mean to lose, a God who delights in restoration.
Deuteronomy 30:3-5