The Bent Nail

Can God use us?

Materials Needed:

A Hammer.
Several large nails, one of which should be very bent.
A soft pine plank cut very skew (any size).

Age Group:

Grades 4 - 8 (10 to 14 years).

I have taken up wookwork as a hobby.  As you can see, I'm not very good at it ( Hold up the skew-cut piece of wood and look very sheepish ).  Let me show you what I can do.  I will hammer this nail into my plank ( Hammer a straight nail about 1 cm into the board ).  There, I managed that fine!  I'm getting pretty good at woodwork, don't you think so?

Now, let me try this bent nail.  I think it will make my plank look very attractive ( Try to hammer in the bent nail - make a great performance doing this! ).  Wow, this is hard!  No matter which way I hold it it either slips out of my hand, or I just can't hammer it into the wood.  You know what?  I think this bent nail is useless!

Calvary Nails:

It reminds me of when Jesus was crucified.  I'm sure that at least one nail was discarded as it would not hold our Saviour to the cross.  It would not hammer in as it was probably bent.  The Roman Centurian ordered the soldier to throw it away.  Perhaps if you went to Calvary today and searched around, you would find an old rusty and bent nail buried in the ground!

If you have ever tried to nail in a bent nail, you'll find that it bends further.  It's also hard to straighten out a bent nail and you need to hammer it on a flat surface.  We are just like bent nails.  God needs to straighten out our lives before we can be useful to Him.

Useful to God:

We are of no use to God unless we allow Him to first straighten out our lives and make us useful in His service.  Just like I need straight nails for my woodwork hobby.  When I buy them I expect the hardware shop to supply me with brand new nails and every one of them must be perfectly straight.

God wants us to be useful to Him, by having our sins forgiven and Jesus as our Savour.  If we really mean business with God, the Holy Spirit will change us and make our lives brand new.  We will then have a desire to obey God and serve Him all the time.

Are you bent or a brand new nail for God?  You had better check yourself right now.

God bless!

Extract from one of our Object Lesson books

Copyright © 2005 Sharon Children's Ministries