The work of a potter moulding the clay at his wheel is well understood as a Biblical analogy of the relationship between God and us, His people, because the basics of the potter's craft have changed very little over the centuries.
Potters take great care in selecting and preparing the clay that they use. Some add special kinds of grass to the mud, and as the organic matter rots and decays, it increases the colloidal content of the clay and helps it to stick together better.
Perhaps we do not appreciate the great care God exercises in preparing and selecting us for His use. Many of us can identify with the slimy, smelly pit of our former sinful ways, out of which God has lifted us.
Are we willing to be clay in the hands of the master Potter?
Despite God's best intentions to shape us into truly beautiful people, His purposes are brought to nothing again and again because of our resistance to His will. Regardless of His best efforts, human beings so often end up a disaster, because they will not comply with His will or co-operate with His commandments. Imagine God's sadness as we, the clay in His gentle, tender, gracious hands, thwart His purposes with our stubbornness.
(0568 30IV2008)
Potters take great care in selecting and preparing the clay that they use. Some add special kinds of grass to the mud, and as the organic matter rots and decays, it increases the colloidal content of the clay and helps it to stick together better.
Perhaps we do not appreciate the great care God exercises in preparing and selecting us for His use. Many of us can identify with the slimy, smelly pit of our former sinful ways, out of which God has lifted us.
Are we willing to be clay in the hands of the master Potter?
Psalm 40:1
He lifted me out of the horrible, slimy pit, out of the
miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock.
Despite God's best intentions to shape us into truly beautiful people, His purposes are brought to nothing again and again because of our resistance to His will. Regardless of His best efforts, human beings so often end up a disaster, because they will not comply with His will or co-operate with His commandments. Imagine God's sadness as we, the clay in His gentle, tender, gracious hands, thwart His purposes with our stubbornness.
Jeremiah 18:4
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.
(0568 30IV2008)