Hammers are made for hammering

As a young boy, I remember receiving my first tool kit, the hammer was my favorite tool and boy was I eager to utilize it. One afternoon, I remember sitting out on the edge of the sidewalk in front of our house with my new tool of choice, the hammer, and began chiseling away at the concrete. Before I knew it, I had decimated more of my hammer than the section of concrete I was whacking profusely and purposelessly. When my dad caught wind of this attempted destruction project, I can't recall his exact words but let's just say a very valuable lesson was ingrained into my young mind that day: "Hammers are made for hammering, not chiseling!"
When Paul wrote to the Ephesians, as well as several other churches, I believe he was reminding them of a similar lesson: Christians are a new creation, the old has been put off and the new has been put on (see Eph. 4:20-24). I've got this great ability to make myself feel really inadequate, and even try to theologize reasons for feeling as such, mainly it plays out something like this: "Hey, I'm a sinner and I am constantly battling the flesh. Oh flesh, you're so bad and persistent and enticing, why can't I ever gain victory over your deceitful desires...arrrrgh!" This usually leads to a huge party with the big fat banner of PITY plastered above the entrance. I end up wallowing in the fact that sin has a grip on me that never seems to loosen itself and will thus hinder me from ever doing great things for the Lord. WHACK! I can almost feel the vibrations of that hammer cracking into the concrete, determined to chisel that curb to smithereens.....
But remember, "Hammers are made for hammering, not chiseling!" In the same regard, Paul reminds me, "Brad, that old self is gone now, its been put off. You've got a new self that's been put on by Christ!" There is no excuse for wallowing in pity for sin's grip on our lives; in Christ, sin has no grip on our lives. It is my responsibility however, as Paul suggests, to continually renew my mind/spirit with the ever present help of the Holy Spirit. This is only possible because I am first and foremost freed from the grip of sin over my life because of Christ's intervention on the cross. I am no longer meant to be deceived by the flesh's corruptible desires, which ultimately corrode a person to death, but am meant to reveal the excellencies of God (see, 1Pet. 2:9).
So the next time you go to use a hammer to chisel away some concrete, remember: "Hammers are made for hammering, not chiseling."