“Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear My words.” Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something at the wheel. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?” says the Lord. “Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!”
(Jeremiah 18:2–6)
Do you know what often happens to us, as believers, that stops our progress in God?
Somewhere along the line we get off the potter’s wheel!
We may do so for seemingly good reasons. Perhaps we get so busy with the external works we do for the Lord that we don’t take time to sit quietly and let Him do the internal work we so desperately need. Perhaps we get interested in outward demonstrations of the Holy Spirit and forget that the first and most important demonstration of the Holy Spirit is the personal transformation He brings forth in our own lives.
But no matter how good our reasons, once we get off the potter’s wheel, things always begin to go bad. Why?
Because just like the first vessel Jeremiah saw, each one of us is marred. We all have flaws and defects in our own, personal selves.
If we’re to be vessels of “honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work” (2 Timothy 2:21), we must spend time letting God mold us and change us. We must fellowship with Him, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord so that we can be “transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18).
We must go daily to the potter’s wheel to be shaped by His tender hand.
Scripture Reading: 2 Timothy 2:15–22
Excerpt permission granted by Lynne Hammond Ministries