When we swing a hammer and hear that ping ping ping, we know we are hitting the mark.  Those times we hear a thud, a hallow sound, and when it hurts, we know we have missed the mark and need to re-aim the hammer.  Why?  Because the only one who can correct the error is the one swinging the hammer.  When we are swinging a hammer at an object and miss, it is our judgment that has caused the miss to occur.

When God is the one chiseling at us, and the sound of the hammer hitting our life is not the sound we want to hear, it isn’t God who has to re-aim His hammer.  His judgment is not at fault for causing His hammer to miss its mark.  We must act to change the sound of the hammer, because the sound of the hammer is directly related to where we are standing in our relationship with the Lord.  The different reactions we have to the hammer may be caused by a wide variety of things in our life-according to us-but at the core they are all caused by our need to be in Gods will.  What do I mean by that?  God intends for us to have a relationship with Him that is intimate.  If the hammer is missing its mark we have moved away from the one who is swinging it.  This  relationship requires time, energy, and sacrifice on both ends.  He has given that to us, and is giving that to us, on a constant basis.  God promises us His constant presence (Ps 46:1 ), which means He is giving us His time.  He promises us shelter, strength, comfort, and to be our sufficiency. (Ps 61:34 , Ps 28:6-8 , Ps 23:4 , 2 Cor 12:8-10 )  That requires much energy.  He has already given us the sacrifice of His son so that this relationship with Him is possible. (1 Jn 4:10 )

Time, energy, and sacrifice.  What time energy and sacrifice is He asking in return, for we could never give to Him what He gives to us.  What He asks is that we spend time in prayer and in His word.  If the sound you hear is a thud-softening is required.  A softening only the Lord can give. (Ezek 11:19 )   This can only be gained by spending time in communication with Him in prayer.  The hallow sound can only go away when you are filled with something, filled with the things that the Lord desires for you.  How do you discover those things?  Spending time in His word, reading those things which He has promised, the wisdom He gives to us, and the instructions He imparts.  If the hammer hurts the only way to heal that is to be honest with God in prayer and to allow Him to comfort heal shelter and strengthen you-allowing Him to fulfill the promises He made.

Time-time in prayer and time in Gods word.  It requires energy when sometimes we think we do not have it.  It requires a sacrifice, because when the hammer doesn’t sound right in our life we may not always want to do it, so we give up what we "want" for what we need. When the hammer doesn’t sound right in our life we may not feel like spending that time, but we should want to change how the hammer sounds.  Why?  Because that is how we are molded and changed, and if the hammer isn’t hitting the mark squarely then the molding process isn’t happening in the most effective way.  When the hammer doesn’t sound right and you just don’t "feel like" spending that time ask yourself this question "Is what I am doing in place of praying or reading Gods word going to change the sound of the hammer?"  If the answer is an honest "no" then the next words should be "Lord-help me to do what I need rather then what I want".

Have you ever watched a child start a project and asked them what they are making and gotten an answer like "I don’t know yet".  My son does that, he will start building something, or doing a craft, with no particular thought in mind as to what it will look like in the end, but he knows it will be something when he gets to the end.  Then he reaches that point and he will proclaim something to the effect of "Look it’s a cat!" and I will be fascinated that he spent an hour building it and got there not knowing that is where he was going when he started.

As adults we don’t operate that way.  We would never start a project without knowing what we intended it to look like when we were done.  Artists are the only ones who operate with a different mindset sometimes, and even they usually have some idea of what the end result should be like.  God has an end result in mind for us, a very specific end result in mind.  2 Corinthians 3:18 says "And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."  We are being transformed, changed into His likeness, that is what God’s end result is for us, we just don’t know exactly what that looks like.  As adults we don’t operate that way, so we will say "wait, hold on, I don’t understand!"  When we can’t see how what is happening fits into the end result of what God is doing it is not because God is hiding it from us, it is because we are not always looking to what He tells us our future is.  We often concentrate on the moment, rather then His promise, that we "are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory".

What better end result!  To be like Him!  If what we are experiencing or being asked to do is going to transform us into His likeness then even when we do not understand it should matter not, because we know He is faithful to His promises.  Unlike the child who starts the project and and doesn’t know the end result, God knows the end result He is taking you to and He is faithful to fulfill the promise and complete the task.  He asks that we place ourselves on His Anvil and allow Him to transform us because we trust Him.

We are in the midst of a mighty battle, a trial that seems to grind on us, where do we run for strength?  The Lord promises a to be our strong tower, to be our strength when we are weak.  More then once in scripture is the Lord referred to as a Strong Tower (Ps 63:1 , Pr 18:10 ).  A strong tower is a place of refuge, a place where one can retreat to when the battle is rough and the strength has run out to fight any longer.  A strong tower is a place where the battle no longer seems on the doorstep because the walls are strong and resilient to the fight.

How do we know God is our strong tower?  His word tell us so, and He proves Himself faithful to His promises.  His history is evident to us in scripture, and we need only spend time there to know that He has proven Himself faithful over and over again.  Proving it to us in a personal way can be different however.  So how can we know He has proved Himself faithful to us in His promises?

We saw that faithfulness for the first time when we trusted Christ.  He was faithful to His promise to forgive us at that very moment, to do what He had promised through the blood of  Christ.  The very fact that we have the ability to be forgiven through trusting Christ is the proof that He fulfills His promises in a  personal way to each one of us.  From there we need to be reading His word to see what His promises are in order to see how He goes about fulfilling them.  There is the key–to know God’s promises in order to recognize that He is fulfilling them.

We are often fooled into thinking God is not fulfilling His promises to us because we don’t understand what those promises are.  For example, God does not promise us a perfect, trouble free life, where He will swoop in solving all our troubles and sorrows.  What He does however promise is this:  "The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." (Deut. 31:8 NIV).  I know this because He has proven it to me even in small ways.  Like reminding me of a passage from His word I had hidden in my heart when I needed it, in a situation where I could not pick up His word to read it.  God is faithful to this promise, we just need to know the promise to realize He is keeping it!

To understand that God is keeping His promises, including that He is our Strong Tower, we need to know the promises He has made to us.  We need to be in His word, reading those promises.  Strength comes from knowing the promises and seeing them fulfilled because we see the Lord working in our life, despite our situation.  When we see the fulfillment of the promises, even in the smallest of ways, we are renewed in our strength because God is a strong tower,  can withstand the fight and has resilience beyond measure.