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Clay in The Potter's Hand

#1421 0822 10A

           Growing in our faith means learning how to trust God for everything in life.  It is like going up steps toward a house—what counts is our life in the house—to enjoy the benefits and comforts of that home.  Being converted, born again, and filled with the Spirit are all necessary, but what counts is enjoying the benefits of God’s blessings by growing in faith and meeting the various circumstances of life as God’s Word says.

          Committing our life to God and saying “Yes” to His will enables us to have His Holy Spirit Who inspires faith in us, and empowers us to conduct our life as the Word says.  God has a plan for every detail of life—the home, at work, physical health and healing, finances, church ministry, and every other aspect of life—a plan He had written, so we could grow in our knowledge of Him.

          Whenever we fail to meet things as God says, we stop any spiritual progress.  If we meet things according to His Word we go forward, and if we meet them contrary to His Word we go backward.  God is not a demanding taskmaster who insists we learn everything at once, but He does expect a foundation to be started, and then building on that foundation until the spiritual house is completed.

          A teacher does not expect a first grade student to do fractions and decimals, but only asks them to sound out letters and words—things they are capable of learning.  God is just as kind, gentle, and merciful—even more so—as any human teacher could be—asking us to learn only the lessons we are ready to accept.  School lessons, at times, seem difficult and beyond our ability to understand, but the teacher knows best and gives them because those lessons enable us to be successful with other studies later on. 

Just as the animal kingdom feeds and trains its young, and then later—after some growth has taken place—teaches them how to hunt and forage for food on their own, so God teaches us little by little until we can meet more difficult tests.  God is molding our disposition to be more Christ-like.  Isaiah 64:8 “O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand,”—if we allow Him by obeying Him.

Tests will be encountered—someone may offend us; a financial reversal—no pay check or a big repair bill; a physical attack in body; an upsetting home situation, or anything.  Each one will mold our Christian Character to be more like Jesus—if we meet the situation according to the Word.  The Lord stirs us from our resting place so we can move forward spiritually.  It is all part of His training program.

Jeremiah 18:3-4 “I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.”  The potter does not expect perfection at the first turn, but adds another touch to re-mold, modify, and bring to completion.

If the clay is not pliable in the hands of the potter, the vessel can be marred and fall to pieces.  If we are not pliable in God’s hands, and if we turn away from our faith in Him, we can lose what spiritual knowledge we had gained.  Jesus said Luke 19:26 ”To everyone who has will be given; and from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”

If we meet with a test and fail to pass it, we will be re-tested—if we will repent and get back in the race.  1 John 1:9 ”If we confess our sins,” God forgives, and will make us righteous in His sight.  “O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD.  Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.”  Ephesians 2:10 ”We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.”

We are to learn the lesson of being pliable clay in the hands of the Master Potter.  If we are workable and malleable, we will grow spiritually, and will see change from the sin nature of self, to the divine nature of trust.  Israel could have entered Canaan, and they would have learned a valuable lesson on how God gives success when His commands are followed.  The large majority said “No,” and the small minority said “Yes.”

Israel lost what they had gained, so God was compelled to train them via a wilderness journey that lasted for forty years.  They finally learned how to be pliable clay in His hands; to obey His Word, and to enter the Promised Land.  It would have been much better, had they listened and followed His instructions forty years earlier.

It is encouraging to know that God does not forsake us, or throw us aside, when we make mistakes by failing to be pliable.  There will come a time, however, when we will have to totally commit our will to God, and be malleable clay in His hands, because it takes this pliability to be ready to meet Jesus.

Unless we have learned spiritual lessons on trust, by being pliable clay in the hands of the Potter, Jesus would not be able to take us with Him.  He told us Luke 12:35-36 "Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet.”

The Christian always comes to a fork in the road—where we have to decide to go one way or another, and we are to always choose God’s road—regardless of the danger, risk, threat, or pressure to do otherwise.  Jesus said Luke 14:26 "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his [closest relatives]; yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.”

We are to think seriously about what the true Christian life really is; Luke 14:28 "For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—lest” 29, after we start on the Christian path, we are not able to finish in faith, because we were unwilling to be clay in the Potter’s hand.  33 ”Whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.”

If the Christian life is an experiment, it will end in failure.  God and His Word are to be ahead of everything.  God knows this, and Satan does also—that is why we meet with difficult situations and people, so we have the choice to take God’s path, or the Devil’s.  It will prove whether we have placed our family, our money, our health, our life, or anything else near and dear to us, ahead of God.

If we compromise with His Word and Truth to please a loved one—or anyone—the devil then has more control over us, and the situation becomes worse.  Anything or anyone we try to hold on to at the cost of disobeying God’s Word, will eventually be lost—and maybe forever.  That is why Jesus said John 12:25 "He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”

Being clay in the Potter’s hand allows God to remove the control of self from our heart.  Self is all wrapped up in its own self.  Self has a plan for everything—for the healing of the body with prescriptions, pills, and drugs at high cost; but God’s plan is with prayer, faith and trust on the Atonement of Christ—at no cost.  Jesus said “your faith has healed you” multiple times Matthew 9:22.

Self has a plan for obtaining money by taking out a bank loan; working at two jobs; accepting Social Security payments; or a multitude of other self plans, but God’s way is so much easier and less work, but all by faith.  Philippians 4:19 ”My God—so great is His wealth of glory in Christ Jesus—will fully supply every need of yours.”  No wonder the apostle said 1 Timothy 6:10 “The love of money is the root of all evil.”

Self has a plan for justice when wronged, by the hiring of a lawyer; but the believer follows the Word and leaves all mistreatment in the Master’s hands.  Romans 12:19 ”Not avenging yourselves, beloved, but give place to the wrath, for it hath been written, ‘Vengeance is Mine,’ saith the Lord.”  The list could be long because Satan has a substitute plan for all of God’s plans, but if we are willing to be pliable clay in the Potter’s hands, this control of self will be exchanged for the control of God.

If the plan of self for money remains in control of our life, the root of evil is still present in our heart.  If we place money ahead of God, self will dominate—our profession of faith would be outward; but the control of self would be inward.  Anything we give up or forsake to obey God, is promised to be given back many times over—Mark 10:30 “a hundred times as much now in this present life—and in addition, “eternal life.”

People of the world will persecute us, when we take a scriptural stand on faith issues, but the reward of eternal life is well worth anything we endure in this life.  God only asks us to learn the lesson of faith we are ready for.  It may seem far too difficult, and we always think we are not ready, but God alone knows what is best for us.

When we are willing to stay on the pathway of trust that God has written in the Bible, He will give the strength and ability and faith to follow through successfully.  It will result in more knowledge, faith, and blessings.  We will begin to see things from a spiritual viewpoint; we will understand God’s Truth and principles of faith, and we will receive blessings from Him that we never had before.

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First Century Gospel Church © 2011
PO Box 24283
PHILA PA  19120-5283
contact@fcgchurch.org