Friday Thought -- January 6, 2012

Good Morning Friends,

“This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:  ‘Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.’  So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel.  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.  Then the word of the LORD came to me:  ‘O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?’ declares the LORD.  ‘Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.’” (Jeremiah 18:1-6)

Israel was to be clay in the hands of the Potter.  God wanted them to allow Him to mold them into what He wanted them to be and use them for what He wanted to use them for.  Of course, Israel wasn’t always willing.  In fact, it seems as though Israel wasn’t often willing!  They had their own ideas about what they wanted to do.  They weren’t into allowing anyone else to shape them, not even the Lord.  They went their own way --and suffered the consequences of doing so.

It remains God’s desire to use those who are His in the way He chooses and to make them what He desires them to be.  There are some He molds to be preachers and some He molds to be singers and some He molds to be administrators and some He molds to be servers.  Some He wants to use to show how to handle success with faith.  Some He wants to use to show how to handle failure with faith.  Some He wants to use in health.  Some He wants to use in sickness.  Some He wants to use through a long life.  Some He wants to use in a few short years of life.  Each is important to God because each accomplishes a piece that fits into His plan.

Sometimes I don’t like the way that God wants to use me.  Sometimes I don’t like the molding process that He wants to take me through to make me what He wants me to be.  But -- He is the Potter and I am the clay!

His, by Grace,

Steve