Jeremiah 18:1-6

"Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand."  Jeremiah 18:6

God often teaches us spiritual truths in the Bible through the use of parables or living pictures.  In our Scripture passage today God gave the prophet, Jeremiah, a living picture.  God did this to help Jeremiah understand an important spiritual truth.  God told Jeremiah in Jeremiah 18:2, "Go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you my message."

In Jeremiah's day one could not go down to the local retail store to buy a bowl, vase, or pot.  One had to go to the potter's house.  The potter would start with a lump of clay.  The potter would then put the lump of clay on a potter's wheel; and with the touch of his hands he would form the clay into a beautiful vase, bowl, or pot of some kind.

Sometimes the potter made something that did not please him, or the vessel "was marred in his hands" (Jeremiah 18:4).  This may have happened because some impurities had not been removed, or perhaps a piece of unwanted material in the clay would not yield to the work that was being done on the potter's wheel.  If this happened, the potter would smash the pot and remake it over and over until it was a vessel pleasing to him.

The Lord God is the Potter in our lives, and we are the clay in His hands.  He is in sovereign control of our lives, and He controls all the events of our lives.  When spiritual impurities come into our lives the Lord God recreates and molds our lives to be more in tune with His will.  All the events of our lives are used to make us more like Jesus.

God especially uses problems, difficulties, and trials in our lives to mold us into the kind of people who truly reflect the Lord Jesus.  The Lord wants to bring us ever closer to the center of His will.  Difficulties teach us to not rely on our own self-effort and devices.  Difficult times in our lives teach us to rely and trust only on the Lord.  Difficulties in our lives also help to remove the impurities of sin from our lives, and they help us to grow in our love relationship with the Lord.  All the events of our lives, including difficult times, are meant to shape us into beautiful vessels for the Lord.

Our prayer to God should be that He will make us into beautiful vessels of purpose for Him.  When we fail and allow spiritual impurities into our lives we need to pray that the Lord will take us back to His Potter's wheel.  We need to pray that the Lord will then reshape us and form us into something more beautiful for Him.  From the beautiful fragments of our lives the Lord can make us beautiful vessels for Him!

We must not fight against or question the Lord's molding of our lives.  We need to pray that each touch of His hand in our lives will help us to become whom He wants us to become.  The Lord knows just the right amount of pressure to put on our lives.  We must remain thankful for how He is working and leading in our lives!  We must persevere in our willingness to submit to the Lord's will.  We must be submissive to the Lord even in trials and difficult times in our lives.  The Lord has promised to be with us all the way.

We must also ask the Lord for the filling of the Holy Spirit's power and the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  We must yearn for the Lord to control our lives completely every hour and every day!  There is a song that expresses this well.  The words to this song need to be our prayer each day.  "Lord, You're the Potter.  I am the clay.  Mold me and make me in Your own way.  Take me and break me, Savior, I pray, into a vessel of honor today."