As most folks who know me are aware, much of the early years of my life were spent on our little family farm in south-central Virginia. And one of the enduring effects of those years is my love for tools. I learned that every farmer, regardless of his or her generation or nationality knows, that is, that trying to run a farm without tools would be like trying to fell a tree by gnawing on it with your teeth like a beaver.  

A Love Affair Begins ~
I love all kinds of tools, from hammers and screwdrivers to crowbars and shovels, but there’s one category I’ve always found compelling. My affinity for this particular class of tools has its roots in watching my gran’pa use a tool called a “brace-and-bit.” It was a hand-driven drill that was very effective in drilling holes in wood and other softer materials, but drilling through hardened steel was another story altogether. Drilling through those materials required high speed rotation of the cutting edge. With a brace and bit tool, the speed of the rotation was limited to how fast the operator could turn the handle. But soon, technological advances began to change everything. 

The invention of small, powerful electric motors made the high speed electric drill possible. For a guy like me, discovering that such a tool had been developed and made affordable for most ordinary folks was an emotionally stirring experience. The thought of owning a high speed electric drill was incredibly stimulating – but later when they invented one that didn’t have to   be plugged in, it was like being invited into some kind of handyman utopia. 

What Women Ought to Know ~
Knowing that I could drill a hole whenever and wherever a new hole might be needed brought a feeling of freedom and power, and not having to drag out every extension cord I could find and search for an outlet to plug it in was exhilarating. I learned that power tools can be emotional triggers and elicit feelings that women would do well to be aware of. For some of us guys, discovering the right power tool, for the right job, at the right time can create the reaction that many women seem determined to drag out of their men. The right tool can make a guy melt inside with the kind of grateful adoration his wife hopes for when she makes him watch wedding videos. Somehow, she just doesn’t realize that seeing the daughter of a friend he barely knows walk down the aisle in a wedding gown that looks like all the other wedding gowns he’s ever seen could never approach the deep sense of adoration and gratitude that comes with holding a brand new, lighter, more powerful than ever, reciprocating saw.

But to move on from men’s fascinating relationship with tools and how dependent we are on them. Instead, I want to shift our focus toward our relationship with the Living God we serve and to underscore the fact that He uses tools, too. But as we might expect, the tools He prefers to use are radically different. Ours are inanimate, but His are endowed with a life of their own.  

Creating a New Tool ~
Even though our tools have no life of their own, they still enable us to build things that make life easier and more comfortable. They help make us more productive. They enable us to protect ourselves and feed our families. Tools magnify our strengths, compensate for our weaknesses, and we even use musical “tools” to express our joy and enhance our pleasure. If we flawed human beings can use lifeless objects to do all that, imagine what the Living God can do with tools that have the capacity to communicate with Him, cooperate with Him, and incorporate their strength with His. When God breathed into that hunk of clay in Eden, He brought to life the grandest, most amazing tool the planet would ever see. 

I recall standing in the remains of Herod the Great’s mountain top palace in Israel. I was transfixed in wonder at how strong and secure it still was after thousands of years of storms, wars, vandals, thieves, and political conflicts. I wondered how on earth they could build such a thing with the pathetically limited array of tools they must have had. But the credit for the amazing things men have built does not belong to the tools in their hands. Instead, it belongs to the One who formed the hands that held them. We don’t tend to see ourselves as tools, but God does: 

• • When the Living God needed to build a family, then a tribe, and then a nation, He didn’t pick up a lifeless hammer. Instead, He wrapped His hand around a man called Abram. 
  • Later, when God needed to provide for His people in the face of a famine, rather than picking up a sickle, He reached for a young guy wearing a multicolored coat. 
  • Still later, when an instrument was needed to lead His people out of bondage, God didn’t fashion a map and a compass for them. Instead, He reached out from a flaming bush in the desert and grabbed an ex-Egyptian tool named Moses. 

We could go on and on talking about the many human “tools” God used to bring victory and deliverance to His people, but now I want to move our focus to the challenges facing us here and now . . . 

A Major Rebuilding Project ~
It’s obvious that God’s spiritual “house” in our country is in shambles. Our foundations have been badly damaged, walls have gaping holes in them, and piles of debris need to be cleared out. Vandals have invaded. Protective weapons need to be deployed. There’s a major rebuilding project that sorely needs to be done, and it’s going to take more than human effort and lifeless implements to repair the damage that’s been done. It will take divine power tools to accomplish the work. Jesus made it clear that that’s precisely what He intended us to be. He said:

Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high. (Luke 24:49) NKJV

And soon the followers of Jesus learned that the One who promised was faithful and the power was real. 

And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all. (Acts 4:33) NKJV

A Resurgence of Boldness Is Needed ~
More and more, Christians in our country are being demeaned, maligned, mocked, and discriminated against. Our belief in Jesus and our desire to live life as He taught us to live it is being opposed and challenged by many government agencies and academic institutions. The fear and intimidation tactics are spreading, and we are in desperate need of a fresh resurgence of boldness – not arrogance or verbal aggression, and not unhinged emotional tirades. The Scriptures make it clear that the boldness of those early believers was rooted in their time with Jesus and their confidence in Him. They knew that just as it is with inanimate tools, the strength needed for the task did not lie in them but in the One who held them in His hand. The Scriptures record:

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus. (Acts 4:13) NKJV

God’s divine “power tools” don’t always look impressive by the world’s standards. They may not appear to be stronger, more capable, smarter, or more attractive. Looking back over my life, the power tools I’ve reached for most often generally looked a little more worn and banged up than some of the pristine models that didn’t fit my hand as well. The ones I preferred felt like they were an extension of my own hands. We don’t have to help God use us to do His work. All we have to do is yield ourselves and put our confidence in Him. There’s a lot that needs to be done, so it’s time to say, “Yes” to Jesus and let Him get to work.

“TWEETABLES” ~ Click to tweet and share from the pull quotes below.  Each one links directly back to this article through Twitter . . .

• • “The credit for the amazing things men have built does not belong to the tools in their hands. Instead, it belongs to the One who formed the hands that held them. We don’t tend to see ourselves as tools, but God does.”  @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
  • “The boldness of those early believers was rooted in their time with Jesus and their confidence in Him. Just as it is with inanimate tools, they knew the strength needed for the task didn’t lie in them but in the One who held them in His hand.” @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)  
  • God’s divine power tools don’t always look impressive by the world’s standards. They may not appear to be stronger, more capable, smarter or more attractive. Mine often looked worn and banged up, but felt like an extension of my own hands”. @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)  
  • “We don’t have to help God use us to do His work. All we have to do is yield ourselves and put our confidence in Him. There’s a lot that needs to be done, so it’s time for all of us to say “Yes” to Jesus and let Him get to work.” @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)

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