Divine Tool #1: The Soul’s Scouring Pad

What are Divine Tools?

Unlike spiritual gifts, divine tools are 100% available to any Christian.. Regular use of these tools will bless us and transform our nature. We’ll become more like our Master, Yet many believers never pick up and use the divine tools God has given us.

Why?

Because each one is cleverly disguised as a command. Unfortunately, stubborn believers refuse to obey Jesus’ commands, so their life remains a mess.

Steel Wool

Steel wool, is also called a wire sponge. It’s a lightweight bundle of fine, metal filaments that are very flexible. When a cook burns something in a skillet while cooking, the dish washer often needs to apply elbow grease and steel wool to scrub the burnt food off. It’s the same with rust.  Removing rust takes hard work and persistence. If the metal is in pretty good condition and the budget is tight, scouring away the rust is worth the extra effort. Steel wool also cleans grime off hard surfaces.

A Grimy Soul

If I let my anger against a person who’s injured me fester, it often turns into hatred and bitterness. This corrupts my soul and darkens my inner world. Withholding forgiveness rusts my personality and I become stuck in my pain. My joy is gone. So is my laughter and peace. Years later, even if the person who injured me has died, remembering the offense continues to destroy my happiness.

Mental habits of jealousy, envy and self-pity darkens our souls too. They rob us of the blessings our Heavenly Father wants to give us. Because inner peace doesn’t come by prayer. It comes by obeying the Holy Spirit’s prompting.

So how do we get free? How do we release our inner soul from years of rust and corrosion?

By using the Lord’s steel wool. But let me warn you, it will take some heavy scrubbing. God’s answer is simple, but it’s not easy.

The Soul’s Scouring Pad

How do we cleanse our soul from all the rust, grime and baked-on crap that life throws at us? Listen to Jesus’ command during His Sermon on the Mount.

But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. (Matthew 5:44-45 NIV)

The key phrase in verse 44 is “and pray for…” Jesus is commanding us to bless our enemies and He modeled this on the cross.

This tool is painful to use. Nobody wants to pray for the people who hurt them. But it’s extremely powerful. If stubbornly applied, it will scrub the soul clean of bitterness, hatred, and trauma. Because consistently praying for someone who has injured you heals your heart when nothing else will.

And the Lord honors our obedience.

Jesus’s primary focus isn’t on our enemies. Instead, He seeks to heal His people’s deep emotional wounds.

My Own Experience: Sued by another Christian

Years ago, I was driving a friend to a weekend woman’s retreat and got into an auto accident, which was my fault. I was shaken up, but neither of us seemed hurt. We were 10 miles from our destination and the tow truck operator gave us a lift to town. Another woman picked us up and took us to the retreat center.

Sunday afternoon, we got a lift back home. My wrecked car stayed there and the insurance company paid for the repairs. Unknown to me, my friend, who was not well off financially, happily decided to sue me. She acted as if she’d hit the lottery.

• She didn’t tell me she’d been injured in the accident.
• The lawyer—who had contacted her—told her to keep quiet.
• I didn’t know I was being sued until two years later.
• Her lawyer sued us for the maximum amount I was insured for.
• She rejected a settlement offered by the insurance company.
• The lawsuit went to trial four years after the accident.

1 Corinthians 6:1-8 states plainly Christians shouldn’t sue one another, but she stubbornly ignored these verses.

The Lawsuit’s Outcome

Obviously, this was a very stressful time. But I knew how to use Jesus’ godly “steel wool.” First, I didn’t allow the offense to harden into concrete by reliving the injury over and over. Instead I immediately started to pray and continued to bless my friend in practical ways.

Honestly, it was much harder to pray blessings on her lawyer!

One way I blessed my friend was by keeping quiet. So the people at our church didn’t know she was suing me. My husband did tell two close friends he thought might have some influence with her. But she wouldn’t change her mind. As the trial date neared, we privately shared with the elders and our pastor, asking for prayer.

Finally, I acknowledged God was in charge of the trial’s outcome. Not the judge, not the lawyers and not the jury. It was a wrestling match, but the night before the jury gave their verdict, I surrendered it completely to Him. I made up my mind to be content with the outcome, no matter what He chose.

It ended well.

A Closing Word of Encouragement

Corrie ten Boom and her older sister got sent to a Concentration Camp in Germany in 1944, because her Christian family sheltered the Jews in Holland during World War II.

Her beloved sister Betsy died there, but Corrie survived. Her 84 year old father Casper also died after being imprisoned by the Nazis. So Corrie had things to be bitter about. The harsh inhuman living conditions she endured should have wrecked her life.

But Jesus intervened and she was able to forgive the Nazi collaborator who had betrayed her family.

After the war, Corrie ministered to people in Holland who had suffered serious trauma at the hands of the Nazis.

Every wounded individual had one person they hated the most. It could be a cruel prison guard or the neighbor who betrayed them.

Corrie ten Boom noticed that those who forgave their enemies healed emotionally. The people who didn’t forgive stayed traumatized.

Final Thought

You and I can’t daily bless someone in our prayers without our hearts softening toward them. Praying for our enemies is the key which unlocks our ability to forgive.

All images, including the wrecked red car, were downloaded from Pixabay.com.

Resources:

Corrie ten Boom’s book, “The Hiding Place” is a Christian classic, a faith-filled adventure story of “God’s Underground.”