Are You Allowing Him To Shape You?

By Pat

"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 it seemed best to him." (Jeremiah 18:3-4)

I have often thought of the Lord as a potter, and myself as clay. I pray often for God to "mold" me into what He needs me to be, but yet I know that, as His clay, I am not always very cooperative. In order to be molded, the clay must stay in the potter's hand for the work to be done effectively.

I'm quite certain that there have been times I have slipped away from God's hands as the molding was in progress, hindering the job God was doing. But thankfully, God picks me back up and patiently resumes His work, smoothing the dents and gently re-shaping.

There are other times, I'm sure, that I have allowed myself to become hard and un-pliable, resisting God's touch. But the Lord's grace and love soften me eventually, and His hands again begin their work on me. God knows what He wants of me, what He is designing me to do for Him, and yet I want to mold myself into something I wasn't meant to be. I want to be bigger, better, more beautiful, more important, forgetting Paul's words in Romans 9:21, which says "Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?" And so, again, I ask God to forgive me and to help me to be soft, moldable clay in His all-knowing hands.

I thank God for repairing my cracks and dents and I ask Him to make me what He wants me to be, whether a coffee cup or a beautiful vase. And I will be grateful and obedient and allow my Potter to shape me for His work daily!

Pat is a good friend who is passionate about her faith and her family. She works from home supporting a family business, and loves to read, write and garden when she can, and spends every spare moment with her grandkids.