WHAT GOD CAN DO WITH ME

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