Sharpening the Ax

Tom Moore

One man challenged another to an all-day wood chopping contest. The challenger worked very hard, stopping only for a brief lunch break. The other man had a leisurely lunch and took several breaks during the day. At the end of the day, the challenger was surprised and annoyed to find that the other fellow had chopped substantially more wood than he had. "I don't get it," he said. "Every time I checked, you were taking a rest, yet you chopped more wood than I did." "But you didn't notice," said the winning woodsman, "that I was sharpening my ax when I sat down to rest."

 Spiritually speaking, if we would spend more time “sharpening our ax” – studying the word of God, we would accomplish much more in the kingdom of God. We can never do better than we know, and seldom do we do as well as we know. Remember, the Bible has given us all that pertains life and godliness (2Peter 1:3), we must have authority for all we do (Colossians 3:17), and it is by the inspired word of God that we will be judged (John 12:48). Thus, if we want to be effective for the Lord we must be about “sharpening our ax.” This is why Paul declared, “Give diligence [study - KJV] to present thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, handling aright the word of truth” (2Timothy 2:15).