“Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.” (Is 64:8)
I was at a retreat this past weekend, and our speaker was a lady who was a potter. She brought her wheel and demonstrated to us how to make a beautiful pot out of a lump of clay.
What is God making out of you? Who is He molding you to be?
You know they have to remove all the impurities from the clay before they can use it to make the beautiful pieces we desire to have on our shelf, or use in our home. God does that too, doesn’t He? He removes those impurities so He can use us the way He intended.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve got some things going on right now in my life that I would like to have some control over. In reality, they couldn’t be further out of my grasp. I have no say, no control…just going along for the ride and waiting on God to show me the next step. It’s hard. It’s tiring, and on some days completely exhausting. But, I know He has a plan and His timing is perfect, so he will reveal it to me when He’s ready.
One of the things the potter said to us was, “Can the clay tell the potter what it’s wants to be? Can the clay decide what its purpose in life is?”
The answer of course is “No”, but how often do we try to control our lives in the same way instead of letting our potter, our God, mold us into HIS purpose for our lives? A pitcher would not be good for serving spaghetti, and a large platter would not be good for serving lemonade. We each have our own God-given purpose.
We sang the song, “I Surrender All,” and I wept. I have to completely surrender my life to Him. Not just the parts that are hard or that I don’t want, but all of it. I have to trust that if I surrender my tight hold on this situation that I have been desperately trying to control, if I truly let go, then I can be free to see God’s hand at work and I can trust that it will turn out just as He had planned.
“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.” (Jer 18:4)
See, God can take our mistakes, our imperfections, even our control issues and make them into something new and beautiful that will serve His purpose. As the potter talked about this, she had made a beautiful pot. She had no way to complete it though since she wasn’t at her studio, so she smashed it down in front of our very eyes. We all gasped at the loss, but then, she took that same lump of clay and made another beautiful creation. Just the same, God can smash us down into a lump of clay, and then mold us into something beautiful.
Father, I surrender all. ALL, not just some. I give my life to follow everything I believe in, and I pray that you would shine your light on the next step for me. Show me just the next step of your plan so that I may follow you in obedience. I may not understand the big picture yet, but I can follow you one step at a time. Thank you for having a plan for my life and for using ordinary me to do amazing things that will bring you glory. In His precious name I pray, Amen.