The Potters Hand

Throughout the Bible, we are likened to clay and to God as the potter fashioning us. Clay cannot be transformed without the potter. It takes the potter's skill, artistry, creativity and patience to create a unique piece. It takes the potter to apply just the right amount of pressure when and where it is needed. It takes the potter's hands! In Genesis, God tells us how he fashioned Adam from clay and then made Eve out of his side. God not only initially formed us and but wants to continue shaping our lives.

Clay has two defining characteristics: Firstly, it can be fashioned into a particular shape as it is pliable and totally submissive and can retain the shape it is cast into and secondly, when it is fired, its makeup is transformed, so it becomes nearly impervious to any decay or corrosion. Moreover, the clay has to be "turned" or "moved." No shaping takes place without movement.

Sometimes we can think of ourselves as marred or not redeemable. But in the below verse is a picture of God reshaping us to to be the best. In order for God to do this, we need to be available to Him - totally yielded and allowing to be turned in His skillful hands! When we surrender ourselves to Christ, God can take our sins, shame and problems and spin them into a design that glorifies Him.
Jeremiah 18:1-6
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD : "Go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you my message." So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 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.

As clay vessels, each of us must take a journey of being shaped into more and more into His likeness and character. The steps in this journey can be painful but are necessary for us to be transformed from broken bits of clay into anointed vessels that reflect the glory of the Lord. God is a master artisan who knows how to shape our life and make something beautiful. He knows just how much pressure to apply without breaking us, just how much heat to apply so we set our eyes on Him and how and when to move us so that the right experiences and circumstances can continue to fashion as for a glorious outcome. We need to be pliable in the Master potter's hand and co-operate with Him. We can trust this process as there is no one who is more skilled in the business of personal transformation and who knows us intimately like our Lord, the Master Designer and Potter.
2 Timothy 2:20-21
But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.

What is the reality of your life - as the clay in the Potters hand or as someone trying to direct your own life? Confess your sins and draw near to Him yielded and submissive so that God can shape your life into something beautiful!
Isaiah 64:8
Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.
In the words of the Hillsong song Potters Hand, make this your prayer:
Take me, mould me, use me, fill me
I give my life to the Potter's hand
Call me, guide me, lead me, walk beside me
I give my life to the Potter's hand.