August 4, 2001
"But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands;
so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.
Then the word of the LORD came to me: "O house of Israel, can I not
do with you as this potter does?" declares the LORD. "Like clay in
the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.
Jeremiah 18:4-7
There are many gems that can be drawn from this analogy. The one that first comes to me is a message of HOPE... something I need to hear continually. God can be and is to his people the way a potter is with his clay. Occasionally after much labor the potter wouldn't be pleased with what had been spun, the pot might be marred, it might be weak in places or the quality of that batch of clay wasn't good enough to make a sturdy pot... any number of things may have gone wrong. The potter doesn't throw the clay away he breaks it down and begins again. This is how God is with me... for any number of reasons I am not what I need to be.. sin may have hardened my heart, I may not be as close to God as I need to be, as I've worked through things in my life it has revealed the places in my life and my relationship with God where I am not strong and I need some work. God never gives up, never tosses me out onto the scrap pile... he just begins a patient process of reworking me. It is a lifelong process, God will never be finished with me and I'm glad he never tires of working with me and on me... he holds out hope for me!