In the Hands of the Potter

One of the things I used to do as a child was to help my mother when she was baking (yes, I do know how to cook!). I liked playing with the dough and sometimes made all kinds of characters and shapes with it. When one was not to my liking, I simply crushed it up and did it all over again. I could do whatever I wanted with the dough and I only had to think about what pleased me.

Those memories came back to mind as I reflected on Jeremiah's narration of his trip to the potters house in Jeremiah 18:4-6, "And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hands, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.” This was the imagery that God intended for Jeremiah to see as He sought to remind the prophet of His right to remold His people into what He intended for them to be.

In the events leading up to our text, we see a people that had gone contrary to the will of God. Of them the Lord said, “They obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction” (17:23). It would be safe to say that they walked in their own ways, totally forsaking the instructions and commandments of their God. Yet, despite their rebellion and spiritual adultery, like the potter, God did not throw them away but rather sought to remold them in a manner that pleased Him. We could ask the question: “After experiencing all that the Lord had done for them, His many blessings and benefits, how could they not become the people that He intended?” As I pondered that question, I could not help but think that a significant number of us who call ourselves children of God are guilty of the same thing. As the Spirit of God seeks to direct our lives, sometimes moving us away from the things we think we need, and our respective comfort zones, we too often seek alternative paths. It is not unusual to often times walk in our own ways while keeping one eye open expecting God’s approval. Be it our choice of profession, mate, or goals in life, in the words of Frank Sinatra, we want to do it “My Way”. We want to be in control.

But God reserves the right to do what He wants to do with and in our lives. The struggle for most of us is that in wanting to do it our way, we are consciously aware that the real children of God are those that are led by His Spirit. To be led by His Spirit is to place ourselves in the hands of the Potter; to have Him mould and fashion our lives in a way that pleases Him, and in a way that will bring Him the most pleasure and glory. As we reflect on the goodness of our God, isn’t it about time that we who declare ourselves followers of Christ, yield ourselves in His hands? God desires to fellowship with us but on His terms, and the greatest prerequisite to that kind of fellowship is a yielding of body and soul. In and of ourselves, we are failures. We are prone to wander from His presence; we are prone to leave the God we love. But as clay is in the hands of the potter, so we can allow ourselves to be molded and remolded until the beauty of Jesus is seen in us. Even better is to be shaped by God in a way that will bring Him the utmost joy and pleasure. During my reflection, God reminded me that regardless of what I thought, my only purpose for being here was to declare His glory; to show forth the praises of Him who had so graciously called me out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9).

It is very difficult to not be in control. Like the clay, we have no say in the final outcome. We have no control over how often we are molded or how often we are crushed. Isaiah reminds us: “Woe unto the man that striveth with his Maker! …… Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makes thou? or thy work, He hath no hands? . . . But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.” (45:9, 64:8). What we do know, however, is that however He chooses to mould our lives - through sadness, disappointments, heartaches, or pleasures - when He is through, it will be a job well done and one He will approve of. Come to think of it, all that is important is His approval. Nothing else really matters.

A Great Day to Be Alive

Every time I turn on my BlackBerry phone, I am greeted with a customized message: "It's a great day to be alive!" I had it on my previous phone as well. Why? Because it serves as a personal reminder that things could have been a whole lot worse. Stop and think about it. If God did not allow you to wake up this morning, everything else would be irrelevant. All your unfinished business would remain unfinished, your friends and family would be without whatever it was that you brought into their lives, and your purpose for being on earth would have come to an end. Consider, however, that God in His graciousness allowed you to wake up, in your right mind (even though for some of us others would say that was questionable), and so we are blessed to have at least one more day to not only do the things we want to do, and things we love to do, but equally important - to get things right with man and God if that is where we are in our lives. Another day to glorify God in everything we do.

In Psalm 118:24 the Psalmist David declares: "This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it" (KJV). We can "borrow" the verse from its original context and say this should be the attitude of every believer at the start of each new day. Yes, it is easy to take for granted the fact that we have been waking up every morning for the past twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, or whatever number of years we have been doing so. We tend to somehow forget that tomorrow is promised to no one. Truth be known we have a sense of entitlement to it. How many times have we casually said to a colleague: "See you tomorrow" or "See you on Monday"? James reminds us: "Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that" (4:13-15). Simply put, we cannot and should not take tomorrow for granted.

Our reality is that every morning we wake up is a good reason to praise God. He didn't have to allow us that privilege. We may have gotten up with a million things on our minds and with seemingly endless chores to do, but amidst all of that let us remember none of that would matter if we had entered into our eternal sleep. So amidst the hustle and bustle, let us purpose to declare: "This is the day which the LORD hath made; I will rejoice and be glad in it." Regardless of whatever you are dealing with today, it is still a great day to be alive!

Growing Where You Are Planted

Despite what some ministers and televangelists would have us believe, not every Christian is living on top of the proverbial mountain with everything going on in their lives the way they want it to be. Some are living with challenging circumstances: sicknesses, broken relationships, job that pay the bills but are unfulfilling, difficult bosses, unemployment, to name a few. From their vintage point, the grass is definitely greener on the other side. Unfortunately, this view often produces negative attitudes and behaviors that reflect poorly on the individual displaying them. Somewhere between feeling sorry for ourselves and our being on "the wrong side of the tracks," we have forgotten that we are God's workmanship, uniquely created and called to "declare the praises of Him who called [us] out of darkness into His wonderful light" (1 Peter 2:9b, NIV).

It is not easy to be a good Christian when it seems nothing is going our way; when we feel that life has dumped truck loads of dirt on us. However, in those situations the perspective we miss is that because God has sovereign control over our lives, where we are is not a surprise to Him. We may be there because of things we have done and for which we are experiencing the consequences; it could be that we are on one of God's night shift, those periods of time in which He ordains a difficult path we must walk. We may not understand it, but somewhere in those experiences He is working things out for our good and for His glory (Romans 8:28-29).

It is our Lord's desire that as branches on the vine we bear fruit and that those fruit remain. Jesus said to His disciples, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and [that] your fruit should remain" (John 15:16a, KJV). In other words, no matter where we find ourselves, our lives must bear fruit that last; we must grow where we are planted.

In John 12:24 we read, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain." To focus on ourselves and where we find ourselves is not God's intent. To bear fruit means dying to self and living for others and if we truly believe we have been called, gifted, and uniquely assigned to the positions in which we find ourselves, then the time has come for us to learn how to grow in the dump. We can still praise God and allow His love and light to shine through us to impact others and bring glory to our Heavenly Father.

So while things around us might not be what we would like for them to be, let us be mindful of our attitudes. It is not by chance or by accident that we are where we are. Our sovereign God, by His divine or permissive will, has every one of us were we find ourselves for a purpose. Here every challenge is a growth opportunity; we can and must grow where we have been planted.

How much have you grown lately?