Are you like clay in God’s hands?

“Can’t I do just as this potter does, people of Israel?” God’s Decree! “Watch this potter. In the same way that this potter works his clay, I work on you, people of Israel. At any moment I may decide…” Jeremiah 18:6-7^a

 I am reminded of the good old days when I was a little kid in the lower primary classes and we were doing this Art & Craft lesson which involved a lesson called modeling. This was my favourite session in the subject and I wished that we would be always modeling as I enjoyed the art. One of the reasons was that as a child, I got the chance to play with water and soil mixed up in the absence of my mum something that I couldn’t do in her presence. Secondly, I would make anything that I wanted out of the clay soil that we used (we knew not about plasticine then). I could model a car, demolish it and make a house, dismantle again and model a ball etc, name them; all the things kids think about and enjoy in their child hood. Most of the days, I would go home soiled and I would get beaten for soiling up my clothes but that did not deter me from modeling. The following day I would be there again.

This is the same thing that happens with our God who is our father. When He created us, He made us in his like and gave us a purpose and destiny. This didn’t mean that He was through with us; no, through life, He takes care of us and guides us through the various stages of life. In these stages in life, one thing that He does is that he models us into the kind of people that He wants so that we can be fit, equipped and ready for the purpose that He has called us for. In 2 Timothy 2:20, the bible says “In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.” We really need to realize that we are vessels in God’s house and hands that are at his disposal for his use at anytime and moment but this depends on our cleanliness.

                When Paul talks about one cleansing himself from the latter, he meant that we need to make ourselves ready for the master’s use at any given time. You never know when the master will decide to use you to entertain his guest or use you in other ways that are not mainly guest related. Remember, not all vessels in the house are for noble use, some are for ignoble use. Nevertheless, Paul tells us that whatever and in whichever way that the master decides to use the vessel; it is for good work. So, do not get discouraged if the Lord uses you in a different manner from the one that he uses/used your friend or brother, it all for good work.

                For us to get ready for the master’s use, we need to cleanse ourselves. This cleansing does not only involve repentance of sins and observing the commandments, it involves more than that. There is pruning, cutting, breaking and tearing down of our lives and the God moulds us back into the shape of a vessel that He wants depending on the purpose and good work that He wants to use us for. It is at this juncture that most of us we become rigid and we do not allow God to mould us. We start complaining, murmuring and at times run away from what God is preparing us for. Rather than us yielding to God and allowing him to complete what He started in us when He created us (Philippians 1:6), we run away.

God speaks to the children of Israel through Jeremiah and tells them, like clay is in the potter’s hands, so are you in my hands. This is what we need to realize as believers, that we are who we are in God’s hands and He has the capacity and power to make us or break us. He asks the children of Israel a question, “Can’t I do just as this potter does, people of Israel?” vs. 6. What does the potter do? The bible says “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.” Jeremiah 18:4. This is what God was asking of the Israelites. He wanted to break them and make them a fresh, but in their stubbornness, they caused God to think of destroying them because of them being uncooperative. Thank to God that He is such a merciful God.

In our lives, this is the same thing that God wants with us. He wants us to readily yield unto him so that He can change us but we seem to be rigid and arrogant. We see ourselves as we are self sufficient and we do not need his intervention at all. God tries to reshape us into something pleasing to Him only that we harden our hearts and make ourselves unable to take on the new shape that He desires. Are you permitting God to use you or mold you into the tool, device or pottery that will give honor to God? If not, I want to encourage you to allow God to use His hand to work on you, that you might be a vessel of sanctification to be used by God. The Bible says in Jeremiah 18:4 that the vessel the potter made of clay was marred in his hand. So he made it again into another vessel that seemed good to him. Do you not know that you and I are marred in God’s hand, being that we are sinners? (Romans 3:23) But did you know that God wants to take the marred clay in His hand and make it into a good vessel? (John 3:16-17) Before this can happen the clay must be in a condition where it is soft enough, so the potter can use his fingers and hands to change the clay into the desired shape or vessel. This condition where God can change and shape you is repentance (Acts 3:19.)

Our hearts are hard like stone. We lay by the way with millions of other stones. When we have the re-birth experience that is when we are born again of the Holy Spirit we are gradually broken into dust and form clay. It is only at this stage that God can begin to mould us into His image until finally we are perfect as He is perfect – which is the end of our spiritual journey. This journey entails two things:

1.  Allowing God to break you – this entails giving up of your will; a surrender of our lives to God. He knows our hearts, as the psalmist says in Psalms 139:1-2, he has searched our hearts; he knows when we sit and when we stand. If we allow God to come into every area of our life, our careers, our relationships, and our every desire and submit ourselves to His will, then He will take all that is not of Him and break that.

2.  Allowing God to mould you – this entails accepting God’s will. Once we have been broken, God can start molding us in to the vessel that we were intended to be according to His plan.

Many of us try the first step, though not completely. The problem is the reluctance to surrender completely. Unless there is complete surrender, God cannot get us into the shape He intended. We end up fighting with God in certain areas of our lives. We even may fool ourselves into thinking that we have surrendered fully – when we are actually holding back. Only when we are complete nothingness – dust – then we can be made into clay ready to be molded. Others surrender their lives and wonder why they have hardship. And in that, they grumble. When we surrender to Christ, we automatically take on His hardship and suffering. People let themselves be broken and then wonder why they experience pain during the molding process. Pruning is hard for a plant. Very often pruned plants lose sap, leaves and sometimes even what it may think to be its brightest flowers. But at the end of the pruning process, our heavenly gardener who looks at the big picture always is correct. Though the journey is a hard one, it is a very rewarding one.

Do not allow yourself to be so outlandish, distant, and stubborn that your clay, your life, becomes so hardened through sin that God can’t do anything with you Hebrew 3:12-14 says “See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” Let us yield unto the Lord and allow him to break and mould us again into the kind of people and vessels that he wants, vessels that please him and bring honour unto him.

Amen!