Have you ever seen a young boy learning to use a hammer and nails? My 2 year old son Sebastian loves to help me whenever I am working around the parsonage.
He even has his own little plastic hammer that he uses as I use the real one.
Sometimes I will let him try to hit the nail with his plastic hammer. He will put everything he has into hitting the nail. He will grunt and huff and puff. He gets really serious about hitting as hard as he can!
When Sebastian hits the nail with his plastic hammer though, very little happens. In fact, he is more likely to hurt himself or his hammer than he is to actually cause any real work to be done!
So it is with us as well. All of our efforts to change our own hearts, all of our efforts to get free from the things that hold us captive, are just like a little boy hitting a nail with a plastic hammer.
In our own strength we do not have the power to drive the nails of this life. We hit the nails of addiction with our plastic hammers and nothing changes. We hit the nails of bitterness and nothing happens.
We hit the nails of our sin and our strength is simply not enough to have a visible affect. We scar our plastic hammers, our well intentioned efforts prove futile.
It is not so with the word of God! The word of God is the real hammer for this life. The word of God has the power to drive the nails of this life. When we apply the word of God to the bondages in our lives, we find the strength to overcome them.
When we apply the word of God to the things in our lives which keep us shackled, we find freedom. In John 10:10 Jesus says, “have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (NKJV)