Morning Devotional

September  21, 2005
"The Potter's Shop" (Part 4)     
    by Don Emmitte

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The LORD gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, "Go down to the shop where clay pots and jars are made. I will speak to you while you are there." So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so the potter squashed the jar into a lump of clay and started again. Then the LORD gave me this message: "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. (Jeremiah 18:1-6 NLT).

Yesterday we talked a little about being “squashed” in God’s hands as he remolds us into a new vessel. I do not deny the pain and difficulty of that process. In fact, I acknowledge it both intellectually and personally! The question is not whether it hurts or not? I’m not asking if you agree with what God is allowing or doing in your life. The real question is will you give Him permission to do it? Further, we might even ask if He have the right to do it?

Once, a long time ago, my son and I made a sand castle at the beach. I thought we did a super job with it. Several people were commenting how good it was. He wasn’t happy with it, so he smashed it and started over. I didn’t stop him. After all, it was his sand castle. God made you. He shaped your life. He’s been in control of every blink of your life. He hasn’t caused all the bad things that have happened, but He’s allowed them. He’s got a plan for your life. He knows what He wants you to look like. Doesn’t He have a right to do with His creation as He chooses?

If you aren’t happy with your life right now, I want to encourage you to talk with your Creator. Tell Him your concerns. He cares. Ask Him for changes that line up with your desires. He may allow them. But, if God says “No”, accept His will for your life. He made you and has a right to shape what He made. Bruce Larson tells how he helped people struggling to surrender their lives to Christ:

“For many years I worked in New York City and counseled at my office any number of people who were wrestling with this yes-or-no decision. Often I would suggest they walk with me from my office down to the RCA Building on Fifth Avenue. In the entrance of that building is a gigantic statue of Atlas, a beautifully proportioned man who, with all his muscles straining, is holding the world upon his shoulders. There he is, the most powerfully built man in the world, and he can barely stand up under this burden. 'Now that's one way to live,' I would point out to my companion, 'trying to carry the world on your shoulders. But now come across the street with me.' On the other side of Fifth Avenue is Saint Patrick's Cathedral, and there behind the high altar is a little shrine of the boy Jesus, perhaps eight or nine years old, and with no effort he is holding the world in one hand. My point was illustrated graphically. We have a choice. We can carry the world on our shoulders, or we can say, 'I give up, Lord; here's my life. I give you my world, the whole world.'”

What’s your choice going to be?