Ping ping ping ping THUD.  Over and over the hammer falls, hits its mark, and a sound is heard.  The sound that is heard depends much on what material the hammer is hitting.  Have you ever built anything and listened to the hammer as it hits the nail, then misses?  What sound is heard when the hammer suddenly misses it mark?  Most often a thud is heard, usually because a hammer is used to hit nails into wood.  Now if you happen to hit your thumb, that ensues quite a different response.  If you are hammering a nail into a wall to hang something, you might even hear a slightly hollow sound as the hammer makes a hole in the wall as it sinks into the surface when it hits.  If you take a hammer and pound on brick or stone and you will hear a chip chip chipping sound as pieces come off with each point of contact.

As the hammer does the job it is meant to do-hitting things-it always makes some kind of noise.  It doesn’t do its job silently because it always has a point of contact, that moment when the hammer comes into contact with the object we swing it at.  A hammer cannot do its job when there is no sound because that would mean it made no contact with its intended target.  God uses hammers to mold us: His word and His will.  If we are expecting to have those do their job without having some noise in our life then we are fooling ourselves, because a hammer cannot do its job without some noise.  If Gods hammers are making contact in our lives there is going to be some noise, because that is what happens when a hammer makes contact with its intended target!

Now a physical hammer may go ping, or even thud, when it hits its target, but what kind of noise will God’s hammers make?  First we must look at what God is using His hammers to do.  God intends to mold us into who He desires us to be, transforming us into a new creation intended for His glory.  (Eph 4:22-24 , 2 Cor 3:17-18 )  For this process to take place He must remove the things that are not like Him, and replace them with the things that are like Him.  1 Peter 2:9 tells us "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."  We are called out  darkness!  Verse 1-3 says "Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good."So what is that hammer being used for?  To replace our nature with the things of the spirit.  Looking at this we can only do that if crave spiritual milk-if we seek God, if we are craving spiritual milk we are allowing Him to mold us, to use His hammer to shape us.

So what does Gods hammer sound like?  That depend on us really.  If we are avoiding the hammer, God is still going to use His will and His Word as His tools, however the noise it makes in our lives is going to be much different then that of a hammer hitting its mark!  Think of not only the sound of an actual hammer missing its mark, but the feeling made in your body- rhythmic when it hits its mark, but when missing the mark the vibration of the hammer feels completely different, even hard, harsh or painful.  When we are avoiding God’s hammer that is what happens in our lives.  The molding process still occurs, but it will begin to feel harsh, hard, or even painful.

If you are hard, like a piece of wood, then you are going to hear and feel a hard thud in your life.  The molding process is going to feel like a constant pushing, banging, and pounding.  This is when you need to allow God to soften you through time in prayer asking Him to help you realize His will for your life.  If you are empty you are going to hear and feel a hollow sound.  The molding process may seem useless, like it is taking you nowhere because you do not understand the hope of His calling.  This is when you need to pour your time into Gods word allowing it to fill your mind and soul with His promises.  If the molding process hurts like the hammer hitting your thumb, that is when it is time to remember Gods promises by reading them, and by going to Him asking Him to be your strength, shelter, comfort, and healer.  As the molding process goes on in our lives we will feel a chip chip chipping away in our lives, at the same time those things will be replaced with the things God desires us to become, and He will complete the process to the end.

God is going to mold us, change us, and make us new, what that sounds like in our lives will depend on how we respond to the hammer.  Ask yourself what sounds you are hearing in your life through the molding process.  Does what God is doing sound like a thud,  does it sound hallow, feel painful?  If you are avoiding the hammer in any way,  go to God and ask Him to help you change the sound it is making in your life so that the molding process can become one of joy.  That is the sound God wants the molding process to make in our lives, the sound of joy! For there is no better model for our molding process than Christ!  Being molded by God’s hammer can be a joyful process if we are not avoiding it and we allow God to do what He desires in our life.

Everything changes right?  Isn’t that what everyone says, bands sing about, and books get written about?   There are at least 6 artists who have named a song or album "Everything Changes".   Do a book search on Amazon.com for "Everything Changes" and you get over 10,000 results for books!  I think people generally agree that things change.  It is a constant theme and people talk about it on a constant basis.  When was that last time you got together with a group of people and didn’t hear someone ask "whats new?"  We ask because we know things change.

So why then with God does it surprise us when He wants us to change?  We know that we are changing from our former selfs to our new selfs (Eph 4:22-24 ).  This is a time consuming process, not like changing our clothes or getting a haircut to change our appearance.  He is going to mold us for our entire lives, that is quite a long time.  We know He is going to keep molding us and He gave us a helper to remind us of what He said.  John 14:26 says "But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you." (John 14:26 NIV )   Part of the Holy Spirits very purpose is to abide in us, teach us, and guide us. (John 14:16 , John 14:26 , John 16:13 )

The Holy Spirit was given to us to help us see what in our life needs to change.  The Holy Spirit allows us to distinguish our old self from the new self, that which God wants to mold out of us so that we can be molded into what He wants us to be.  This is not always a very comfortable process.  We don’t always want to be molded.  There are sometimes parts of our lives that we would rather not have change.  We would rather believe not everything changes, and not everything needs to change!  There is only one issue with that thought, if God wants to change it, it needs to be on His Anvil.  I believe that God knows what is best for His creation (Gen 1:27 ).  We sometimes think God can’t change some part of us, yet He is capable of more then we can imagine because He is God, and He has given us the power of the Holy Spirit  (Eph 3:20 ).  At times we think God doesn’t know about that area–yet we fool ourselves (Heb 4:13 ).  We may believe that God is not big enough for some issue in our life.  God is big enough, bigger then we can fathom, for He is infinite (1 Kings 8:27 ).

Is there something in your life that you know is like your old self self and not your new self?  Is there something you know God wants to change but you are not letting Him?  Is it for one of these reasons, or some other reason you have come up with?  Well God is big enough, He does know whats best, and He is capable of changing us into our new selfs just as He promises.  Fool yourself no longer into thinking it doesn’t need to change.  As the Holy Spirit guides us through the process of molding we need to be listening.  I challenge you to drag whatever the Holy Spirit has made you aware needs changing unto Gods Anvil for Him to mold.  In prayer we can go to God and ask Him to change us, and He is faithful to do so.  After all, change is something we are in a constant process of with God, the process of constantly changing to be more like Him (Eph4:23-24 ).

My son just got some silly putty, that moldable putty that you can transfer a picture onto, stretch out to make the picture look different, and then squish it all up again to transfer a new picture on it again.  This kind even glows in the dark!  He is fascinated by it.  Moldable putty that can be changed on the surface, with a different picture at any given moment.  That picture will remain there and can be stretched and changed, but it still remains until it is squished up.  Then underneath it is still the same old silly putty.  Silly putty was designed to be this way, always the same putty no matter how you change its surface appearance.

Unfortunately this sometimes happens with people to.  Same person on the inside no matter how you change the appearance on the outside.  Silly putty can’t change its insides no matter how many pictures you put on its surface.  The reality is people can not truly change just by putting a new picture on the outside either.  There is a danger in not allowing God to change us beyond the surface.  Ephesians 4:22-24 says "You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness." (Eph 4:22-24 NIV )  When we don’t allow God to mold us, we are not going to be able to put on this new self.  It is impossible to do that without Him, since it is He we are being changed to be more like.

When we are in danger of not allowing ourselves to be molded by God, it may be because there is something we don’t want God to mold.  It may be because we think we can handle things just the way they are.  Well look at that silly putty again.  What happens to it after the surface is changed and stretched, but it eventually gets squished?  It is the same old silly putty underneath.  That is the danger in not being molded on the inside.  When we don’t allow God to mold us, and something comes along that squishes us so to speak, we become corrupted again by our old self and our deceitful desires, and we don’t act like our new self.  We all do it.  We all have moments where our old self shines through-like that glow in the dark silly putty.  What we need to do is be sure that when that small part starts to glow we allow God to mold into something new, not just cover it up with something so it doesn’t show for a little whole longer.  Eventually it will show again, and then what.

When we are going through trail one of the unfortunate things that happens is many of those old self moments glow through because we are being squished.  We may react like our old self.  Our emotional reaction may reflect our old self.  We might revert to an old behavior we thought we defeated.  It matters not what that old self part is that is glowing through, it only matters that we don’t just cover it up, and that we allow God once again to mold us, to change us, and to teach us we are no longer that person.  It certainly doesn’t hurt to be reminded that we are a new creation because we are in Christ. (2 Cor 5:17 )