The Workbench Beside the Locked Shop

For the repairer who works on a bench in the open because the good workshop was never his to use.

Suppose there's a bench along the outside wall of a building, under the overhang, with a vice bolted to one end and a bucket underneath for the bits that fall.

A man works at it most days. Hinges, latches, a mower that has been rebuilt twice, a wheelbarrow that should have been scrapped in 2019 and will outlive everybody. He works in the cold from November to March and does not complain about it.

Nine feet away there's a workshop with a proper bench, a pillar drill, a bandsaw and a heater. It has a padlock on the door. He has never had a key, was never offered one, and has been at that site for seven years.

You have been doing skilled work in the open air while measuring yourself against a padlock. Scripture says God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think, by the power that works in us, while the Holy Spirit is at work at a bench under an overhang.

What the Padlock Actually Means

Be exact about it, because seven years beside a locked door teaches a man a sentence that is not true.

It means a padlock was fitted, probably after something went missing, and the keys went to two people who were there at the time. Nobody has revisited it, because nobody revisits a padlock. That is the entire content of it.

What it has come to mean for you is that there are people at this site who are inside the operation and people who are useful outside it, and that you are the second kind. You have never said that out loud to anybody. You have organized seven years around it.

A padlock fitted for a reason nobody remembers has been ruling on where you belong. The written Word says God works in us with a power beyond what we ask or think, while the Holy Spirit gives a verdict that a lock on a door has never been able to touch.

That meaning can go today, and it does not require either key holder to say a word.

Why the Man Who Rebuilt the Mower Has No Key

There is a version of this that asks that question loudly, and this is not it.

It would ask why a man who rebuilt their mower twice has no key. It would make the case, which you could make in two minutes with examples, because seven years under an overhang gives a man plenty of material.

It would also leave you heavier, sharper, and still in the cold, and it would land on two people who have not thought about that padlock since the year it went on.

You can be released from what a lock has come to mean without prosecuting anybody who holds a key. Scripture rests your standing on the power God works in you rather than on what anybody owes you, while the Holy Spirit takes weight off a man instead of handing him more.

Nothing here asks you to request a key, raise it, or mention seven years. The yard gets lighter, and nobody else has to move first.

What the Bench Has Already Done

Look at your own ground honestly, because you have never given it a fair hearing.

That wheelbarrow should have been scrapped six years ago. It hasn't been, because a man under an overhang keeps deciding it's worth another hour. The mower has been rebuilt twice with parts that mostly came off other machines, and it started first pull in April.

None of that was done with a pillar drill. It was done with a vice, a hacksaw, and somebody who would not give up on a machine other people had written off. The workshop would have made it faster. It would not have made it happen.

There is a reason the bench produces that and the workshop would not. A pillar drill makes the obvious repair quick, which means the obvious repair is the one that gets made.

A vice and a hacksaw make everything slow, and slowness is what lets a man stand there long enough to see the third option. The mower started in April because somebody spent forty minutes looking at it, and forty minutes of looking is exactly what a well equipped shop trains out of a person.

There's a difference between the two that nobody at that site has ever named. Equipment makes a repair quicker. A repairer makes it happen at all, and this place has had one of those under an overhang for seven winters.

What has kept this site running came from the bench, not from behind the padlock. The written Word points to a power at work in you rather than to equipment, while the Holy Spirit works through a man in the cold as fully as anywhere with a heater.

You are working with the power God works by, and you have had it at that bench for the whole seven years. The written Word locates it in the person rather than in the room, and the Holy Spirit is that power under an overhang in November as much as behind any locked door.

Stories in these messages are illustrations unless marked as testimony.

Written by Elias This message is free. Nothing here is locked, nothing is for sale, and nothing is being asked of you.