Be the Clay in God’s Hands

One day at church, my Pastor was preaching on the Potter and the Clay. He spoke for a short while and then a potter made a pot as we worshiped for about three songs. The Lord showed me some interesting truths as I watched this skillful artist turn this lump of clay into a beautiful vessel before my eyes. Isaiah 64:8 “ O Lord, You are our Father. We are the clay, and You are the Potter. We are all formed by Your hand.” God doesn’t just want to save me. He wants to mold me into the very best version of myself.

The First thing that struck me was the sponge of water. The Potter was constantly hydrating the clay with water, gently dipping a sponge from the water source and squeezing drops of water all over the clay. Jesus said in my spirit; “This is the Living Water that keeps your heart moldable in My hands. Drink deeply of the Living Water every day, or you will get dry, and hard-hearted. Clay needs to be soft in My hands to be moldable”.

The potter wrapped his hands around the lump of clay and pulled it up onto a tower-like cylinder and then made a fist and gently pushed down into the top center creating the opening of the container. While one hand was on the outside of the spinning clay, the other was working on the inside of the vessel. I couldn’t see what his hand was doing, but the shape changed from a cylinder to a rounder pot. The movements of the potter’s hands were gentle and almost imperceptible, but changes were being made to this pot before my eyes.

I imagined for a second what it must feel like to be the clay, spinning constantly. Without the hands of the potter, the clay could fly off its base and would remain only a useless lump of clay. The clay was nothing apart from the potter. When my life feels like it’s spinning out of control, it helps to remember that the Heavenly Potter, Creator God, has me in His gentle and capable hands. Psalm 139:13–16 NASB “13For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. 14I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. 15My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; 16Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.…

The same verses in the Message Translation give us another level of insight into these Biblical truths:

Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
you formed me in my mother’s womb.
I thank you, High God-you're breathtaking!
Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration — what a creation!
You know me inside and out,
you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
before I’d even lived one day.

The Potter has tools that make each pot completely unique. He Gently peels off things that are not useful, like pruning a tree, fashioning each of us one-y-one. Every pot has a special purpose. God makes each of us perfectly for our unique purpose.

1The LORD gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, 2“Go down to the potter’s shop, and I will speak to you there.” 3So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. 4But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so he crushed it into a lump of clay again and started over.

5Then the LORD gave me this message: 6“O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand. 7If I announce that a certain nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down, and destroyed, 8but then that nation renounces its evil ways, I will not destroy it as I had planned. 9And if I announce that I will plant and build up a certain nation or kingdom, 10but then that nation turns to evil and refuses to obey me, I will not bless it as I said I would. ~Jeremiah 18:1–10

Be pliable in the Father’s hands knowing that He can always begin again. Using the pain and life lessons that you have, He can mold you into something beautiful and useful to bless people in only your way.