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He
digs his hand into the cold, hard clay, and pulls the
desired amount from the larger block. Rolling the once
gritty substance between his hands, he runs his fingers
over the surface looking for troublesome pebbles that
might have been missed. Pleased with his selection he
begins to throw the clay against a large slab; with
his fists he applies great pressure so as to push out
any pockets of air that might shatter the future vessel
when it is placed in the intense finishing heat of the
fires.
Taking
the clay from its pounding slab, He places it on the
wheel and slowly the mound of clay begins to spin round
and round. Before he begins to shape the clay he dips
his hand into a bucket of water that sits at the base
of the wheel. He lets the water run off his hands and
onto the clay, softening it, working away any stiffness
or resistance to his touch. The potter sets to shaping
his much desired clay vessel. Unafraid of any unseen
flaws that may hamper his design the master potter continues
his work. Confidently he presses and gently pulls at
the clay, raising it up.
Are
you afraid to be conformed, do you resist Gods touch
because of the fear of what he might find? He will never
be alarmed by anything he finds in your life, not just
because he knows all things but also because he is greater
than all things. His will reigns supreme in our lives
nothing that has happened can prevent his hand from
drawing out the beautiful shape he has in mind for you.
Romans 8:29 says, "For those God foreknew he also
predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son,
that he might be the firstborn among many brothers."
In her study, “Living Beyond Yourself” Beth
Moore writes, "Perhaps you continually struggle
with the fear that if God had known some of the mistakes
you were going to make and the sins you were going to
commit, He never would have chosen you. Scripture is
clear -God foreknew you from birth to death, yet He
predestined you for His very own. It's called grace.
I don't understand it either, but I praise the name
of the One who offers it!"
These
words so encouraged my heart. There are times when I
am striving and pushing but I still don’t feel
I am doing enough and yet I know the Lord speaks to
me and says, "Cease your striving, I am pleased
with you just because I chose you and you are my daughter."
Sometimes the Father brings sweet blessings into my
life and I say, “No, I can't have that Lord, see
over here in the corner there is this fleck of sin.”
Each step I take He instructs me, "Honey, let it
go. It's my job to conform you, and I chose you. If
I want to form you through hard work and discipline
I will do it that way, but if I want to conform you
through multiplying the works of your hand and blessings
abundant than I will do it that way. I am the LORD your
God, it is I who conform you."
I
am reminded of the passages throughout scripture that
refer to the children of God as clay in the potter’s
hand. Isaiah 64:8 says, “Yet, O LORD, you are
our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we
are all the work of your hand.” He foreknows the
qualities and characteristic of the clay before he chooses
it. What disappoints the Lord is not the stiff sections
or finding a pebble, it is when the clay resists the
pebble being removed or when the clay refuses to be
softened and molded. Is 29:16, “You turn things
upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like
the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed
it, "He did not make me"? Can the pot say
of the potter, "He knows nothing"?”
In the book of Jeremiah God sends the prophet Jeremiah
to the house of a potter to give him a divinely inspired
message for the nation of Israel. He shows Jeremiah
his tenderness and patience to work with his children.
Jeremiah 18:4 says, “But the pot he was shaping
from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter
formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best
to him.” Reading Matthew Henry’s commentary
on the passage above reminds me of how often I see God
as limited and not the almighty, all-powerful God that
he is. “[The prophet] took notice how he (the
potter) wrought his work upon the wheels, just as he
pleased, with a great deal of ease, and in a little
time. And (v. 4) when a lump of clay that he designed
to form into one shape either proved too stiff, or had
a stone in it, or some way or other came to be marred
in his hand, he presently turned it into another shape…”
Henry goes on to write of the message Jeremiah gleaned
from his experience at the potter’s house, “It
is a very easy thing with God to make what use he pleases
of us and what changes he pleases with us, and that
we cannot resist him. One turn of the hand, one turn
of the wheel, quite alters the shape of the clay, makes
it a vessel, unmakes it, new-makes it. Thus are our
times in God’s hand, and not in our own, and it
is in vain for us to strive with him.”
Our
lives are in God's hands, he knows us as he has since
he chose us. The enemy wants us to fear that God might
find something that he dislikes in us and thus throw
us out. There is nothing that God will see in you, which
he cannot work out. As the wheel goes round, simply
allow him to soften you by his grace soaked touch.
Written
by Brooke Heidi
Bibliography:
All Scripture used are from the New International Version
(NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible
Society
Henry,
Matthew. "Commentary on Jeremiah 18." Matthew
Henry Commentary
on the Whole Bible. Blue Letter Bible. 01 Mar 1996.
23 May 2006.
<http://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/mhc/Jer/Jer018.html>.
Moore,
Beth. Living Beyond Yourself. 3rd ed. Pg 15. Nashville.
Life Way Press,
2005
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