Word of the Week

10/24/09

And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make. Jeremiah 18:4 (NKJV)

But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so the potter squashed the jar into a lump of clay and started again. …As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand (says the Lord). Jeremiah 18:4, 5 (NLT)

God gave Jeremiah a picture of us being clay as in the hand of a potter with God being the potter. God demonstrated that He has the power, right, and authority to make and mold us, His creation, as He pleases. If our life has become marred and has not turned out as He had planned for it to, God, in His loving wisdom, may remake us into a new vessel for His glory which will now seem good to Him. Sometimes this process requires us to be completely humbled and squashed into just a lump of clay without anything left of our old ways or our old life. Then He can begin completely anew fashioning a new life for us that is pleasing to Him.

We must be submissive enough to God to allow Him to eradicate every vestige of self in us that He sees as marred and be yielded enough to allow Him to reshape us as He wants us to be. The responsibility to remake us is God’s for we are unable to do it by ourselves. We must trust God in the reshaping process which may take away what we thought was good.

PRAYER: Dear God, Help me to be wholly yielded to You so that You can mold me and make me into a vessel pleasing to You.