I once lived next door to a guy who owned every kind of tool known to mankind. He had bench saws, miter saws, jig saws, band saws, thousands of wrenches metric and otherwise, ratchets, extensions, sockets, electricians tools, lathe, drills, ladders, screwdrivers, welders, magnets, mirrors, grinders, clamps, glass cutters, voltage meters, you name it. He could have built the sixth fleet, an entire subdivision, and the Trump Casino with all that stuff.
It was quite the contrast to me. I didn’t have any tools, (that I could find), and my wife fiercely guarded her precious hammer, screwdriver, pliers, tape measure and crescent wrench like they were the J.P. Morgan jewel collection. At our house one does not use or even ask to use one of her prized tools. (She claims this hateful behavior was born out of people, (me), using them and then losing them…Bah!)
So what to do when in need?
I learned at a young age while living on the street that in order for this country boy to survive that I had to be wily and when conditions were bad learn how to adapt. It was no different when I came off the street, so when I needed something fixed I would go to my neighbor.
I quickly learned that if I asked in just the right manner, I could not only borrow the tool that I needed, but if I acted dumb enough, described the situation clumsily enough, and stroked that big ego of his by telling him what a master craftsman he was, then he would not only loan me the tool, but he would come with it and use it to skillfully fix my toilet that ran constantly, or that light bulb socket that wouldn’t work, or that screen door that would never close right, while I stood by offering encouragement between sips of my Coke and munching chips.
I was thinking of that old boy this morning and I thought of all of the tools that satan uses to ruin our lives. He has every tool known and he skillfully uses just the right one for whatever situation in which we find ourselves in order to destroy us. When it comes to being wily, adaptive and shrewd he wrote the book on it. He wrote chapters on lust, pride, money, alcohol, beauty, drugs, ego, lies, idols, disrespect, gossip, lewdness, profanity, divorce, financial problems, sickness, death, jealousy and on and on.
What to do?
God has a toolbox too. His is even less crowded than my wife’s in that it contains just one multi-purpose tool, and that is the love of Jesus Christ. All the stuff hurled at us by satan and his minions is repaired through that one tool.
It’s all we really need.
Best of all we don’t have to buy it, borrow it, steal it, or do without; unlike my wife He gives us what we need as His free gift because He loves us and wants us to do well. And even better, He brings it to us and installs it in our hearts to help us in every situation, including all that “stuff” that is weighing us down and making us miserable today.
Be wily, be adaptive, and be bold and ask Jesus to fill your life with His love this morning. It will fix anything wrong with you. It is not a tool that He loans. It is His free gift and it’s ours to keep forever. We just need to fill our lives and hearts with it and allow it to flow freely into our lives. We can conquer all forever through the love of Christ!
Romans 8:37
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.