The Potter's Hand

Good Morning,

Jeremiah 18:1-10 (NIV)
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD : "Go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you my message." So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 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.
Then the word of the LORD came to me: "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?" declares the LORD. "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.
Isaiah 29:16 (NIV)
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"?
Romans 9:20-21 (NIV)
But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?' " Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?

The song that many of us have sung, perhaps are still using in some services, says:

Change my heart oh God
Make it ever true
Change my heart oh God
May I be like you
You are the potter, I am the clay
Mold me and make me
This is what I pray.....
(Sorry I don't know the author)

Now, I know that when we read these words or sing the song we truly mean it. We WANT God to change us, to mold us and make us, into whatever He sees fit for us and for our lives. Or, well....DO WE???

As we read in these verses today we see that Israel, and in including a nation I'm sure it means people, sometimes resisted God's hands on their lives and wanted to be made into something that, perhaps, God did not have in mind. What I ask today is simply: Have things changed? Have people really changed? Are we better than those people that are written about in the Bible? Or, are we much like them and STILL, these thousands of years later (which SHOULD make us thousands of years smarter, don't you think?) do we still resist God's hands on our lives when He wants to take us, mold us, and make us into that which He knows we ought to be?

Paul asks,"Does not the potter have the right to make our of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?" We must ask ourselves this very same question. Am I willing to allow God to make me into something different than I am now? Will I allow God to work in my life and change what I'm doing? Will I give over my all to God so that He can take me, mold me, and make me into what it is He knows is not just best for His purposes, but for my life?

Is this "Biblical Makeover" fun and easy? Will it turn out like the "makeover" shows we see on reality TV? (Somehow I sort of really dislike those programs.) No, it often isn't easy and many times it's anything that we would consider fun. Again, no, it doesn't turn out all peaches and cream and rosy for those of us who will go through this "makeover" by God. There are times when we will not be pleased or satisfied with what God does in our lives or where He has us to serve.

In the final analysis, however, it shouldn't matter to us what God decides to do with us or make us into or have us serve. What should matter to us is that He DOES use us and show us where to serve. That's the point, you see.

Just as the clay in a potter's hand does not argue or resist what the potter does with it, then we ought not to be arguing with our Potter who would do with us as He pleases.

So, that leads us to looking at our lives to see if we've been resisting God's hand and where He might be guiding us. We need to see if we've been clay that has resisted the Potter's hand. If so, we need to change that and simply allow God to do as He knows is best.

It's worth it.

Love, peace, and blessings,

David