On The Potter’s Wheel

There is a song that I love to sing entitled He Didn’t Throw the Clay Away. Its message ministers to me each time I sing it or hear it:

Empty and broken, I came back to Him, A vessel unworthy, so scarred with sin, But He did not despair, He started over again, And I bless the day He didn’t throw the clay away.

He is the Potter, and I am the clay, molded in His image He wants me to stay, But when I stumble and fall, and my vessel breaks, He picks up the pieces, He doesn’t throw the clay away.

Over and over He molds me and makes me, Into His likeness He fashions the clay, A vessel of honor I am today, All because Jesus didn’t throw the clay away.

I am so thankful that God is patient and does not give up on me. There have been so many times I have failed and felt worthless, but God my Father keeps working on me, letting me know He loves me enough to want to change me.

Because we love our child, my husband and I correct her and endeavor to keep her going in the right direction. We want what is best for her. There are times that she becomes upset when we don’t allow her to have her own way, because it is hard for her to understand that the decisions we make are for her own good. She is like most children who don’t see the big picture. She wants what she wants (right now) and sees no reason why she can’t have it!  Do we not behave the same way with God? We pray for certain desires to be fulfilled or for our lives to go in a particular direction, and we become angry that God does not answer our prayers in the way we thought He would.

So many times I have prayed for circumstances or people to change, only to discover that the Lord wants to change me. It is very humbling to pray about a problem and have God reveal to me that I am the problem. I am thankful that He puts this lump of clay back on the Potter’s wheel and continues to mold me. I am thankful that He sees worth in my life that I sometimes do not see.

Father, thank You that You hold my life in Your hands. Thank You that You care enough about me to continue molding me into the person You have planned for me to be.

Scriptures for Reflection
The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then 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. (Jeremiah 18:1-4)

But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand. (Isaiah 64:8)

And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. (Hebrews 12:5-6)

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. (Jeremiah 29:11)