I have always
been amazed at how a Potter can manage to take a lump of clay and transform it
into something useful and beautiful. The other day as I was watching a
television program on how things are made, it showed how potters make earthen
ware from spoiled and unyielding, dirty, muddy clay. I noticed that the first
thing that a Potter will do before he begins the process is to add water to it
in order to make it pliable and soft enough for him to be able to actually use
it. If he does not add enough water into the clay, it will remain too hard and
rigid for him to be able to handle it. The water is what makes the clay soft
and pliable. The analogy in the story of the Potter and the clay found in
Jeremiah 18, speaks of the child of God’s transformation and sanctification by
the hand of God in their lives. Ephesians 5:26 refers to how he uses water in
the life of each believer as they are put on the wheel. It states, “…that He
might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He
might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or
any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.”
The water that
is used in this process of shaping His children represents the His Word. God
molds and transforms us as His children in this life. But exactly why He does
some of the things He does with us in this molding process, “as the process can
be quite painful and unpleasant at times”, is His business and His alone, but
be assured, that when it happens, it is meant for our good and nothing less.
For the Lord knows what it will take, to make us what His will determines that
we need to be. Yet God does not even begin to mold and transform us in this new
life unless we are first willing do our part. Our part is to surrender our
lives to Him and get into His Word, to know Him better, by our reading and studying it. Our understanding of the
Bible or Word of God, comes as we assimilate what is says as best we can, and
with the help through the power of His Holy Spirit, we will begin the process
of understanding what we are actually reading. If however, we give up or become
sporadic in our efforts, even then, God still continues the process in us,
drawing us to do His will. It is very important however, that we work with Him
and not struggle to have our own way as He is molding us, because when the clay
works against the hand of the potter, the process can become more difficult and
painful for us. God’s ultimate will for our lives is to change us into the
image of His Son and that is a continual process that begins in the life of
every believer once they have turned from their sin and received His free gift
of salvation, through the atonement of His only Son, Jesus Christ; until the
day they draw their last breath on this earth. How far they get in their
sanctification depends solely on how soon they surrender to the process of
being on the Potter’s wheel. Like a piece of clay even when we break and tear
apart, the Potter’s hand can take us and reshape us into an incredible useful
image, that brings Him glory and fill us with peace, fulfillment and
contentment.
A Christian’s
sanctification is brought on literally by the hand of God Himself, operating
through the Holy Spirit on the inside of them. It will supernaturally transform
and sanctify them. In the analogy in the story of the Potter and the clay found
in Jeremiah 18, when a potter works on a pieces of clay he always works on the
inside as well as the outside. After the potter begins to add some water to the
clay as it is spinning on the wheel, he take his hand and pushes it down, on
the top of the clay, to create an opening in it.
Once this
opening has been made at the top of the clay, then he goes down deep inside the
middle of the clay as it is forming out, and uses his hands to properly shape
the piece of clay, as it is building up, during this spinning process on the
wheel as the clay continues to spin. The Potter cannot make any shape or form
of a vessel unless his hands go down deep into the middle of the clay as it is
forming out. In the same way, God’s own hand literally goes down deep into the
middle of our souls where the inner sanctification work is actually done to
mold and transform us into the saints, He wants us to become. While God never
forces is will on us, He will manipulate our circumstance as the Potter
manipulates the clay to get the shape that he is looking for in the vessel.
This is how God does His inner sanctification work in us, as He needs our full
cooperation in order to be able to get that deep on the inside of us. As God is
doing His supernatural work on the inside of us, it can become rather painful
and unpleasant at times, as He is removing all of the bad and negative
qualities that He does not want operating in our personalities. At the same
time, He is removing the impure qualities in us He is instilling and imparting
His godly qualities in us, that He desire us to have.
Like the
potter in the allegory of Jeremiah, God also has to apply a good amount of
pressure with his hands as he is molding and shaping us from time to time in
order to get us to change to become the kind of person He wants us to become by
removing toxic qualities such as pride, arrogance, bad tempers, and lust. These
can all be very painful due to our flesh wanting to keep these negative
qualities operating in our personalities. because they are characteristics that
our flesh is most familiar and comfortable with. But by letting God do this
inner, surgery like work, in us through the Holy Spirit, we will eventually be
molded and shaped into the godly saint that He is calling us to become in Him.
Just as the lump of clay begins to go up and out in its shape as it continues
to spin on the wheel, so does the life of the Christian as they yield to the
hands of the potter, allowing the Potter to give them their shape. There are
times though that we can feel as though our lives are actually spinning out of
control and we become convinced that the devil is in control. This is not so
sweet friend if we are yielded to the hand of God! It is at those times that we
need to look under the table and be reminded as we see whose foot is on the
spinning wheel. If it were the devil we would have been thrown off long ago.
So remember
that God is monitoring your every move. Yes, God’s eyes and His attention are
always on you and you can fully trust Him to complete the good work that He has
begun in you until the day you take your last breath. The Potter is never
intimated by the clay, no matter how flawed it is. He can work and rework it
until He gets the finished product that He wants. God does more for us than a
potter can do in his creation of an earthen vessel. God formed us and then He
gave us the breath of life to walk, talk, think, feel, have emotions and enjoy
living, otherwise we would just be a bunch of ceramics for Him to look at. “But
now, O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You our potter; and all
we are the work of Your hand.” Isaiah 64:8. Oh, what God can do with me, if I
will simply let Him!
Loving on you
sweet friend!
Bren
