In the Potter’s Hands

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. Jeremiah 18:1-5 (NIV)

I have been meditating in the last few days on this passage that has been set to music by the worship team from Australia, Hillsong. I encourage you to go to YouTube.com and listen to the link that I have noted here. The video has the words done like a closed caption so you can really get the message. It has sent me to tears as I considered myself a lump of clay, unformed and non-functioning. The Potter (my Father) takes me and shapes and molds me into something beautiful and functional. I become an wondrous instrument in the hand of the Potter.

Being squeezed and softened into a workable consistency is not easy…nor fun! God has to work me until I am warm in His hands, no longer stiff and hard. I must give way to His massage…I mean message. God can turn me in a moment from a misstep and set my steps in His guiding steps.

Giving my life into God’s hands continues to be a choice because I am so independent and my flesh is so self-sufficient. I intellectually know that I cannot and am not capable of directing my life successfully. God most often is merciful enough to engage in this tug of war with me. I say ‘merciful’ because if He was not so full of mercy, He would let go and let me have my way into a mess!

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? Romans 9:21 (NIV)

Oh yes, He does! But to be used by God for any use is wonderful! How can I say that any purpose or use of God’s is common??!! And there is where my meditation has taken me. I am left with the wonder and awe of how God, Creator, would take me and mold me into a usable instrument in His hands. WOW.