Prayer is communion, or connecting, with God. I wonder how many people pray and never connect. How many people go through the rituals and never really have communion? To keep the edge sharp, we must connect with God.
The opposite of a sharp edge is a dull edge. We don't want a dull edge! Unless you keep it sharpened through prayer, the edge will become dull. What can you do with a dull edge? Not much! You can saw away for hours and not cut anything!
Some knives are advertised as never having to be sharpened. I bought one thinking, "Man this is great - a knife I'll never have to sharpen. It must be made out of some supernatural steel or something." But now it won't even cut butter!
I try to cut bread with it and it hacks it all up. It makes me so mad that I bought such a stupid piece of junk. They're guaranteed, but who keeps the guarantee paper on a $3 knife?
That's how Christians are sometimes. We think there's some sort of guarantee that we'll never go dull. There is no guarantee! You have to sharpen the edge - pray - every day.
The sad thing is, some of us are dull and don't know it. So we go through our day and we start hacking away. Hack! Hack! Hack! We're trying to cut through our day with a dull edge. We think, What's wrong with this knife? I can't believe this is so difficult!
There's nothing wrong with the knife - the edge just isn't sharp. We didn't start our day out with prayer. We haven't had communion with God and committed everything to Him. We need to sharpen the edge.
Another thing about a knife: If you start beating it on a rock, after awhile it will get dull. Every once in a while you might be able to cut something, but for the most part the knife is all beat up. But if you'll stop, lay the knife on its side, and start filing it back and forth on that hard surface, the edge of the knife will be sharpened.
So many times we want to just hack our way through the hard challenges we face. But if we'll say, "Wait a minute. I'm gonna let this thing sharpen me. I'm gonna start praying. I'm going to find the real answer to this problem. I'm gonna pray until I've got a word from God." Then, Boom! We've just cut through the hardness.
Let your challenges push you to sharpen you. When you sharpen yourself, you keep the edge!
List your most pressing prayer requests - the hardest things you're facing right now - and take time to pray until God speaks to you about them.
All rights reserved. Used by permission.