## When faithful people feel worn down
Many Christians expect spiritual drift to happen only when someone walks away from God. But Pastor Frank Santora says the loss of passion can also happen while a person is still praying, serving, parenting, leading, attending church, and doing the visible work of faith.
In a teaching based on 2 Kings 6, Santora uses the miracle of Elisha and the floating axe head as a picture of a believer recovering what he calls a lost spiritual “edge.”
The account is simple: the sons of the prophets were building a larger place to live and learn. While one man was cutting timber near the Jordan, the iron axe head flew off its handle and sank into the water. The loss was especially serious because the tool had been borrowed.
The man cried out to Elisha. The prophet asked where it fell, cut a stick, threw it into the water, and the iron floated. Elisha then told the man to pick it up.
Santora sees in that moment a pattern for Christians who feel tired, dull, depressed, or spiritually listless: preparation, determination, and invigoration.
## 1. Remember what was planted before the loss
Santora’s first point is that what happened before the loss matters.
The young prophet was not being careless in isolation. He was helping expand the place where the prophets lived and learned. According to Santora, that matters because Scripture teaches that God does not forget faithful labor.
He points to Hebrews 6:10: “For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name.”
The image is agricultural. Seeds planted in one season may not appear immediately, but they are not wasted. Santora connects that idea with Genesis 8:22, which speaks of seedtime and harvest, and Ecclesiastes 11:1, which says bread cast upon the waters will be found “after many days.”
In his reading, the young man had already planted several kinds of seed.
He cared about the house of God. He saw a practical problem and helped solve it. He did not let the lack of his own axe stop him, but borrowed one and went to work. He also honored Elisha by asking him to come with them.
Santora argues that this posture of honor mattered. If Elisha had not been present, the young prophet would not have had the prophet there when the crisis came.
For readers who feel they have lost momentum, the point is not to boast in past works. It is to remember that God sees faithful obedience, even when the results feel delayed.
## 2. Call out to the Master instead of quitting
The second step Santora identifies is determination.
When the axe head sank, the young man cried out, “Alas, master! For it was borrowed,” according to 2 Kings 6:5.
Santora reads that cry not merely as panic, but as a decisive turn toward the one who could help. The man did not abandon the work, run from the prophet, or try to solve the impossible problem on his own. He called out to Elisha.
For Santora, that becomes the central spiritual lesson: when the edge is gone, move closer to the Master, not farther away.
He compares that kind of determination to other biblical figures who refused to retreat: Jacob wrestling for blessing, Esther risking her life before the king, David facing Goliath, Moses confronting Pharaoh, Mary yielding to God’s word, Daniel praying under threat, and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refusing to bow.
The application is direct. A believer cannot manufacture spiritual life by self-effort alone. Santora’s emphasis is that recovery begins when God becomes the first place a person turns, not the last resort.
He also notes a detail in the miracle: Elisha did not ask for the old axe handle. He cut a new stick. In Santora’s interpretation, God does not merely restore the old level of passion; He can give a renewed and better “edge.”
## 3. Pick up what God restores
The story does not end with the iron floating. Elisha tells the man, “Pick it up for yourself,” and the man reaches out and takes it, according to 2 Kings 6:7.
Santora sees that final instruction as crucial.
God did what the man could not do. The iron was recovered from the water. But the man still had to reach out and take it.
That, Santora says, is the moment of invigoration. Restoration is not meant to leave a believer passive. Once God restores peace, joy, passion, opportunity, family, provision, or purpose, the next step is obedience.
In practical terms, that means returning to the work God has given: serving again, blessing others again, sharing faith again, and refusing to live permanently in spiritual exhaustion.
The miracle, in Santora’s telling, is not only that the axe head floated. It is that the man could return to the work with what had been restored.
## The takeaway
The message is aimed at believers who feel as though life, pressure, disappointment, or fatigue has dulled their faith.
Santora’s answer is not denial and not shame. It is a call to remember the seeds already sown, cry out to the Master, and then take hold of what God restores.
The borrowed axe head sank. The man could not retrieve it. But when he called out, the impossible came back to the surface.
For Santora, that is the hope: the lost edge can be recovered, and the restored believer can get back to the work of God with renewed strength.
*This article is based on a teaching attributed in the source material to Pastor Frank Santora, lead pastor of Faith Church and host of “Destined to Win.” Human editorial review is required before publication.*
