Clay in the Potter's hand...

A dear friend wrote me yesterday that she was praying that I would be “clay in the Potter’s hand and that He will shape me into the perfect vessel to show His amazing and perfect love for those I touch this week”….Oh, Lord, may it be so…sometimes I feel like a lump of clay instead of a vessel that can hold water and do what it was created to do! Yet I know He can do miracles with a lump of clay!

I took a group of young moms to a potter’s studio one time several years ago. We had been talking about wanting to be molded into vessels He could use, wanting to be moldable clay in the Potter’s hand…and we decided we wanted to see how hard it was to actually “make” something out of clay ourselves. What a revealing experience that was! Some of our balls of clay flew off the wheel and across the room, some kept falling apart, some kept needing more moisture than others, some seemed to mold easily…all of it was hard work! We did end up with some pretty unique creations…some prettier than others but all useful in one way or another. It was a great reflective lesson on how God does create us all…we are all different but all useful when we allow Him to be the Potter in our lives! Working with clay is hard…it is “hands on” work and your hands get messy! How thankful I am that God is willing to put His hands on my life, to get messy and experience life with me and work with me until He gets me in the shape I need to be in to do His will. It was also sobering to consider how difficult we must be in God’s hands sometimes as we fight being molded…and how thankful I am that He doesn’t just leave me on the floor where I deserve to be when I fly off of His wheel! I am so glad He is willing to pick me back up and start molding me again.

Thinking about this today made me go right back to submission in my life. I read this sentence in a devotional recently… “I have wrestled with God’s plan for my life even as I have sought to submit to it.” I thought to myself, “Well, Brenda, there you go!” That spoke to where I am. I am seeking to submit to this new path in life but sometimes, I still wrestle with God over why He changed MY plans for Pete and me to continue to be together in this life on earth. Yet, over and over again, I keep going back to the fact that if He is sovereign, then He is sovereign. And I need to continue to submit to the Potter’s wheel if I desire to still be used here on earth for His glory…with or without Pete! And I do! Another devotional thought said, “If we truly remain like soft clay in the Master Potter’s hands, we will not be crushed or broken when things don’t go our way. We’ll allow God in His sovereignty and wisdom to mold us, reshape us, and redirect us according to His plan, as He sees fit.”

“Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!

Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.

Mold me and make me after Thy will,

While I am waiting, yielded and still.”

“We are the clay and you are our Potter; we are all the work of Your hand.” Isaiah 64:8

Here is this broken vessel, Lord, please continue to mold me…mold me to be used by You, mold me to make a difference in other’s lives, mold me to be bold in sharing You wherever You send me on this earth. Have Thine own way…