• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • DavidJeremiah.blog
  • Listen
  • Watch
  • About Dr. David Jeremiah
  • Contact Us
  • Topics
  • Donate >

David Jeremiah Blog

Pastor, Author, Broadcaster

You are here: Home / Christian Living / What It Means to Be Clay in the Hands of the Potter
Hands working clay into pottery

What It Means to Be Clay in the Hands of the Potter

Share2K
Tweet
Pin8
2K Shares

What would we do without the variety of containers we use every day? Plastic milk and water jugs, glass jars, plastic containers of all sorts, cotton and canvas bags, wooden and cardboard boxes, large and small. We don’t think twice about what a benefit they are. But think about biblical days, especially in the Old Testament. They had one kind of container that served a multitude of purposes: clay jars. If you had a variety of different needs, you simply made or purchased a different sized clay jar or pot. Everything was clay! Whether decorative or common, they were all made of the same stuff—dirt (clay) and water.

It’s no wonder the image of a potter and clay shows up so frequently in Scripture—beginning in Genesis 2:7 where “God formed man of the dust of the ground.” Molded out of clay, we are, in a literal sense, pottery. God physically shaped Adam from the clay of the earth and breathed life into him. We are all humans, a word that is akin to humus, meaning “earth” or “clay.” The apostle Paul referred to our bodies as “jars of clay” (2 Corinthians 4:7, NIV).

To say that we are clay in the hands of the Potter acknowledges God’s handiwork as the Master Potter, or Creator, of our physical body. It also recognizes God’s authority to shape us inwardly, to spiritually fashion us into a vessel fit for His use, molded as an image of our Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul says God wants to form us into “a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work” (2 Timothy 2:21). This gives us a biblical basis for thinking of the events and influences of our lives as His hands and fingers, shaping us like a potter shaping clay.
Meme: To say that we are clay acknowledges God's handiwork as the Master Potter of our physical body.

In the midst of his suffering, Job reminded God, “Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me? Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again?” (Job 10:8-9, NIV) Isaiah rebuked Israel for thinking that she, the clay, knew more than God, the Potter (Isaiah 29:16; 45:9). Jeremiah lamented that Israel, “once worth their weight in gold,” had reduced themselves to mere “pots of clay” (Lamentations 4:2, NIV).

The dominant theme in Scripture is a simple one: God is the Divine Potter and humanity is the clay. It is another way to express God’s sovereignty over all people; a way to express our need to yield to His divine plan; a way to encourage us to find the purpose for which we have been made; a way to accept the divine purpose for all of God’s handiwork.

God’s Hands Form Our Life

Our life rests in God’s hands. Like a skilled potter, He knows how to apply precise pressure, when to relax His grip, how to score our life with His fingernail, how to squeeze and nudge—all of which increases our fitness as a vessel for His use. At times the Master Potter places us in the kiln where the fires of life turn us into stronger vessels.

In her book Why? Anne Graham Lotz describes a phone call that launched her into “the wild blue yonder of faith.” The call was from her son, Jonathan, who said, “Mom, the doctor thinks I have cancer.” Anne instinctively prayed with Jonathan over the phone, and she later wrote this:

I was able to praise God for His divine purpose for Jonathan’s life, which apparently included cancer. Although we had been caught by surprise, I knew God had known about it since before Jonathan was born…. Therefore I had absolute confidence that this suffering would be for Jonathan’s good and God’s glory. We knew God had a plan, apparently cancer was part of it!1

God permitted this trial in Jonathan’s life as a tool in the skillful hands of the Master Potter to mature, develop, and conform him into the image of Christ. Romans 8:28 says, “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” And the next verse specifies His purpose: “to be conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29).

Our heavenly Father wants to use the events we encounter each day as tools with which to shape and sculpt us into the image of Christ. He wants to deepen our faith, to develop within us the quality of perseverance, and to make us watertight containers of His love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithful, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

Meme: Our heavenly Father wants to make us watertight containers of His love.

When we experience pressure, we can visualize the skillful hands of the Divine Potter using it for good in our life. Trusting Him, we can echo the prayer of Isaiah: “But now, O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You our potter; and all we are the work of Your hand” (Isaiah 64:8).

God’s Hands Re-Form Our Life

Sometimes we think we’re unusable and even unredeemable. We’ve done something for which we feel shame and guilt, and we think God can no longer use us. Our problems are occasionally of our own making, and our pain may arise from our own stupidity. But when we bring our sin to the Lord, confess it earnestly, nail it to the cross of Christ, and surrender it to the power of His shed blood, God can take our sin and shame from us and then mold us into a vessel that glorifies Him.

In 1902, a 42-year-old woman sat in a prayer meeting with a broken heart. She had served the Lord faithfully all her adult life in various capacities, all the time dreaming of her heart’s desire—to take the Gospel to Africa as a missionary. When her plans finally seemed to be moving forward, a lack of financial support brought her dream to a standstill. Heartbroken, she attended a prayer meeting at church.

Hardly able to focus on what was going on around her, she was struck by the words of an elderly woman who prayed, “It really doesn’t matter what you do with us, Lord, just have your own way with our lives.” She couldn’t get that idea out of her mind as, later that evening, she sat meditating on Jeremiah 18:1-3, the story of the potter shaping the clay. Before retiring that night, Adelaide Pollard wrote out all four stanzas to the now beloved hymn, “Have Thine Own Way, Lord,” published in 1907. You may know the words to this beautiful hymn by heart, the first verse of which says,

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.

In Jeremiah’s image of the Divine Potter and the clay, one particular thing caught Adelaide Pollard’s eye: The Potter saw a blemish in the clay He was using, so He shaped the pot again. Had God delayed Adelaide’s trip to Africa in order to shape her differently, to refine her for His service? She didn’t know, but she was willing to yield herself to the Potter’s hands. And she did eventually get to Africa as a missionary, all in God’s time.

Make this verse from Adelaide’s hymn your prayer as you think of the forming and re-forming work the Master Potter does in your life. With His skilled hands, He is crafting you into a vessel of honor fit for His use. Visualize your life as a studio of the Divine Potter and know that His hands are on your heart. Ask God to have His own way in your life as He forms—and re-forms—you into His wonderful image.

Meme: He is crafting you into a vessel of honor fit for His use.

Sources:

1Anne Graham Lotz, Why?: Trusting God When You Don’t Understand (Nashville, TN: W Publishing, 2004), 22.

Share2K
Tweet
Pin8
2K Shares

Related

Filed Under: Christian Living

Primary Sidebar

Dr. David Jeremiah

About Dr. David Jeremiah

Dr. David Jeremiah is one of America’s most trusted Bible teachers. For more than 36 years he has helped millions deepen their understanding of the Bible through 8,761 daily Turning Point Radio releases and a weekly Turning Point Television program that reaches millions of people weekly.
More »

Receive Daily Devotions from David Jeremiah

Sign up to receive email devotions each day!

Subscribe
You've been successfully signed up!

 

 

 

Recent Articles

  • Why Was Jesus Born in Bethlehem?
  • What It Means to Be Clay in the Hands of the Potter
  • What Kind of Rewards Will Believers Receive in Heaven?
  • Christian Estate Planning Basics
  • 8 Reasons Why I Journal—and Why You Should Too

Topics

  • Adversity
  • Bible
  • Christian Living
  • Devotional
  • Family
  • Finance
  • Heaven
  • Heroes
  • Holidays
  • Kids
  • Prayer
  • Prophecy
  • Spiritual Warfare

Exclusive Devotional Daily in His Presence. Every day of the year take your eyes off of what's going on in the world and connect your heart with the heart of Jesus for a few moments. Learn more and request your Daily in His Presence Devotional.

Daily in His Presence Devotional

Footer

Stay Connected

 

 

 

DavidJeremiah.blog is part of the broadcast ministry of David Jeremiah. For more, log onto DavidJeremiah.org.

Delivering the unchanging Word of God to an ever-changing world.

Recent Articles

  • Why Was Jesus Born in Bethlehem?
  • What It Means to Be Clay in the Hands of the Potter
  • What Kind of Rewards Will Believers Receive in Heaven?
  • Christian Estate Planning Basics
  • 8 Reasons Why I Journal—and Why You Should Too

About Dr. David Jeremiah

Dr. David Jeremiah is one of America’s most trusted Bible teachers. For more than 36 years he has helped millions deepen their understanding of the Bible through 8,761 daily Turning Point Radio releases and a weekly Turning Point Television program that reaches millions of people weekly.
More »

Copyright © 2019 Turning Point for God.  All Rights Reserved   ·   Terms & Conditions   ·   Privacy Policy

The Power of Confession

For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was turned into the drought of summer.
Psalm 32:4

California is a dry state that needs water to be transported over many miles to population and agricultural centers. Snowfall in the winter and melting snow in the spring are critical factors in replenishing shrinking reservoirs. In periods of modern droughts, aerial photographs document the receding water levels in reservoirs around the state—shorelines growing wider and drier as water levels fall.

Such is the picture David paints with his words in Psalm 32—a drought of spiritual vitality brought on by his own sin. When he failed to confess his sin to God, his “bones grew old” and he groaned “all the day long” (verse 3). It was like his soul was being evaporated by the heat of his own guilt and shame. But then the rains of grace came and David confessed his sin and God forgave him (verse 5). And he encouraged his readers not to make the same mistake he had made (verses 9-10).

Confession and repentance reveal the access to restoration. Hiding sin does not remove it from God’s sight; but when we seek God’s forgiveness, the refreshing living water from the Father is poured out on us and we are restored—that is the power of confession.

The way to cover our sin is to uncover it by confession.
Richard Sibbes

Treasure!

I rejoice at Your Word as one who finds great treasure.
Psalm 119:162

Earlier this year, a volunteer for a charity in Arizona was going through books donated for a sale. One was an old copy of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. The volunteer decided the dilapidated volume wasn’t worth saving and was about to throw it away when she thumbed through it and found a hidden chamber. Someone had used a knife to cut a hole in the middle of the book. Inside was $4,000!

That’s nothing compared to the treasure you’ll find when opening the covers of the Bible. Perhaps it would help to think of it in those terms. Use your imagination to see every word of Scripture turning to gold as you read it. Think of every promise as a precious stone. See the words about Jesus in the Gospels as sparkling like diamonds. Visualize your daily Bible study time like a miser running his hands through a chest of gold.

The treasury of Scripture will enrich your mind, refocus your goals, replace your doubts, and redirect your path—but only if you read it and heed it. Start today!

To get the best use out of [the Bible] for daily life,…Give it the best and freshest, not the most tired and dull, hour of the day.
M. S. Kimber in The Sunday School World, 1893

Hello Heaven!

I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, because I know that I will soon put it aside.
2 Peter 1:13-14, NIV

Peter wrote his final letter shortly before his execution. He wasn’t discouraged; he was looking forward to the future. He spoke of “looking forward to these things.” and “[looking] for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13-14).

Life is full of hardships and heaviness. We have the promises of God to help us in difficult days, and we have the Holy Spirit within us. We have a purpose for being here—to refresh the memory of others regarding the things of the Lord. But we’ll soon put aside the tent of our earthly body, and what a relief! Goodbye hardship and heaviness. Goodbye trials and troubles. Hello Jesus! Hello heaven! Hello golden streets, glorified bodies, endless days, and the fresh air of New Jerusalem!

During difficult times, the hope of eternity gives us strength. If you’re prone to worry yourself to sleep each night, turn your thoughts upward and close your eyes thinking of heaven and its eternal throne.

A tent or a cottage, why should I care? They’re building a palace for me over there.
Harriet Buell, in her hymn “A Child of the King”

Overcoming Temptation

Temptation. Whether we realize it or not, it is part of our past, and it will be part of our future. The moment we resolve to stand strong and walk away is when temptation grows most intense. That is why Scripture is of paramount importance. God’s Word contains the answer to resisting temptation before it’s too late. Consider these verses:

No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full–grown, brings forth death (James 1:13–15).

Some people wonder about the value of the Old Testament in a Christian’s life. The apostle Paul addressed that question in 1 Corinthians 10:11—”Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition.” To what things was Paul referring? He listed them in verses 7–10. They are idolatry, immorality, infidelity, and disloyalty.

Temptation is not sin; yielding to temptation is.

With that background, Paul exhorted believers not to make the same choices the Israelites made—not to provoke God’s discipline by willfully sinning. None of us is above God’s discipline if we engage in sin. We must look for and take “the way of escape” God provides in every situation where temptation is found (verse 13). To think our temptation is unique is to believe a lie. “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man” (verse 13). There are no “new” temptations in life.

The apostle James argued that if temptation becomes serious, it is because we have allowed it to do so. Our own “desires” entice us away from God and desire “gives birth to sin” (James 1:13–15). God doesn’t tempt us, but He may allow temptation to enter our lives in order to give us opportunities to make obedient and mature choices.

Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, and He took the same means of escape that is available to us—obedience to God’s Word (Matthew 4:1–11; Hebrews 5:8). Temptation is not sin; yielding to temptation is. There is always a righteous choice to be made if we are willing to seek it.

Ready and Willing

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
2 Peter 3:9

A leper approached Jesus and said, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” Jesus touched the man, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed”—and he was healed (Mark 1:40-42).

That event is a beautiful example of the willingness of God. In fact, there are no instances of Jesus being asked to help or heal and Him answering, “I am not willing.” There is a place where the Bible says God is “not willing,” and that is 2 Peter 3:9. In writing about the timing of the Day of the Lord (the end of the age), Peter says God is waiting for all who will be saved to come to Him. He is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” Said another way, God is willing for any who want to be saved to come to Him (John 6:37; 7:37). The question is never whether God is willing but whether man is willing.

Have you responded to God’s willing invitation to come to Him?

God is far more willing to save sinners than sinners are to be saved.
J. C. Ryle

Steadfast

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
1 Corinthians 15:58

Paul’s letter to the people at Corinth was an exhortation to remain steadfast. The church in Corinth was an undisciplined church, and he was letting them know that even though the culture around them was in flux, their faith in Jesus Christ needed to remain focused and sure. It is true for us today also. How can we remain steadfast in our faith and avoid the pressures of this ever-changing world? By devoting time each day to the study of God’s Word.

As we read the Bible and immerse ourselves in God’s truth and character, our lives are changed—we become more like Him. God’s Word is a powerful litmus test for our souls and actions. As our lives center on God, giving priority to hearing His voice and reading His Word, we become bolder in sharing our faith.

Joshua had the confidence and courage to lead God’s people into the Promised Land because He believed in God’s promise and presence. We serve the same God who said: “And the Lord, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed” (Deuteronomy 31:8).

You can place your steadfast trust in Him.

When we find a man meditating on the words of God, my friends, that man is full of boldness and is successful.
Dwight L. Moody

Creation Care

Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Genesis 1:28

Marine litter is a huge ecological problem. Many countries’ coastlines are littered with plastic and debris, and there is an “island” of plastic more than the twice the size of Texas in the Pacific Ocean where currents have accumulated the debris. Fish become entangled in discarded fishing nets and lines, with bellies full of plastic debris they have swallowed.

Such images are in stark contrast to the pristine beauty and glory of Eden as presented in Genesis. Though mankind was given the mandate to “have dominion over” (that is, to care for) all of creation, we have not done a good job. When God’s mandates go unfulfilled on earth, God’s glory is diminished. And that mandate extends to our personal life as well. Paul writes that we belong to God and we are to glorify Him with our care and use of our body.

When you see opportunities to care for creation—nature or your own body—do so as a way of glorifying the Creator.

The creation is both a monument of God’s power, and a looking-glass in which we may see his wisdom.
Thomas Watson