When we pound a nail we so often think of the sound the hammer makes, bang bang bang.  We never think about what the nail would feel if it could.  A sharp impact and the pressure of hammer upon it, driving it into another object.  The force it feels at it cuts a hole in the object it is being held against.  The repeating pounding to keep the pressure going.  Then finally, quiet, as it rests completely in the object it was pounded into.

We are that nail, and sometimes we feel that pressure.  That pressure may come from the things we are experiencing, or it may be coming from God’s hammer.  As God molds us He sometimes finds it necessary to pound His hammer on us so we can feel the force of the impact.  He does this so that we will eventually rest in the place He desires for us to be.  Like the nail feels the repeated pressure of the hammer until it rests where the hammer holder stops pounding, we can feel the pressure of God’s hammer until He stops pounding because we have reached the point He intended us to.

Sometimes a nail does not respond to the hammer holder the way he intended it to.  A nail will sometimes slip off the object, it will sometimes bend to one side after it is partly pounded in.  If we do those things when God is trying to mold us the molding takes longer because He must first straighten our course.  We will feel the pressure of the hammer as it corrects our course and starts pounding on us again.

God intends for us to come to a place of rest where we are finally molded into the likeness of Christ.  That happens when we are with Him for eternity.  While we wait for that day we must allow the hammer to pound on us so that we will be closer to that likeness.  When we feel pressure we must ask ourselves is it God’s hammer trying to correct our course?  Are we being a stubborn nail, slipping and bending, or are we allowing God to hold us up straight and allowing Him to decide where we land.  If God’s hammer is pounding us straight we ought to rejoice and thank Him, for it God who keeps us straight on that course.  If we are bending and slipping, then we are being distracted by the world, and we ought to ask the Lord to correct our focus, so He can continue His molding process.

A nail has never asked the hammer holder to pound on it, it has no choice in this matter.  We however have a choice whether we allow God to use His hammer on us.  We must choose to put ourselves in the position where He can mold us, for God does not mold those who have not put themselves under His hammer.  That position only comes through Christ.  When we have trusted in Christ’s redemptive work on the cross we are choosing to allow God to mold us into the likeness of Christ.  We must then choose daily to allow Him to continue that process of molding us with His hammer.