Today's Bible Reading: ISAIAH 63:15-66:24, 2 KINGS 20:20-212 CHRONICLES 32:32-33
Isaiah 64:8 But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.
Regardless of what happens to us or how we feel about it, we are all the work of His hands. We are the clay and He is the former of the clay. All of us whether we acknowledge the existence of God or not are the product of His creative handiwork. He shapes us and forms us according to His own plan and purpose for us. He is the potter and we are the clay.
It is interesting to consider the clay analogy. Several things come to mind. First, the clay doesn’t form its self, it is utterly dependent on the skillful sculpting by the Sovereign’s hands. The clay wholly relies on the hands of the potter to work it and shape it. The potter takes great pains to work out the impurities and smooth over the rough spots to perfect the clay.
Second, the formation of the clay is completely according to the desire and design of the potter. He has in His mind what shape the clay will take and what purpose it will serve. The clay literally has no say in the formation process. The clay is at the mercy of His maker to determine what will become of it. Isaiah had previously stated to God’s people, “You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay that the thing made should say of its maker, ‘He did not make me’; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, ‘He has no understanding’? (Is 29:16). The Lord is the creator and controller of what becomes of us, the clay, not the other way around.
Third, it is difficult to mold clay that is not pliable. If the clay has dried out or become hardened it makes it impossible to shape. Unyielding clay is hard to form into anything. This kind of clay is useless to the divine molder. There are times when the clay is still pliable in the potter’s hands, but “the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do. (Jer 18:4). Sometimes we need to be reworked by the potter for our good.
We may not like the shape we are being formed into by the potter, but He knows His designed outcome for us and He will work and rework us, the clay, with His caring hands to bring it to fruition. This should give us great confidence for our future. God is forming us into something that pleases Him and in which He finds great value and worth. His hands are all over what we become. That is a source of great rejoicing and praise. We don’t have to worry about what we become, He already knows and is daily working to shape our future. We have a divine purpose designed and developed by our sovereign potter.
Your relationship with the potter should reassure you that whatever He makes of you and your life is His best for you. If the clay could speak it would tell of the pain in the process, but the pleasure of the product. We must choose to trust our divine potter and willing submit ourselves to being “thrown” on His wheel to mold us according to His determined will.
Today thank the Lord for shaping you. Praise Him that He has a plan and purpose for your life. Thank Him for those times when He has had to re-worked you to help you become the best that He could mold you to be. Thank Him that you are always on His potter's wheel being formed into what He wants you to be.
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