A Perfect Vessel

One day the Lord spoke to the prophet Jeremiah:

"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.

Then the word of the Lord came to me..."Can I not do with you as this potter does?...Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand." (Jeremiah 18:2-6)

Have you ever seen a potter at work on a potter's wheel? A vessel takes shape as the potter's hands mold and guide the upward flow of the clay. But then, if the vessel does not meet with the potter's approval -- perhaps becacuse of a flaw in the design or a bubble in the clay -- the clay is smashed down again onto the wheel, and the clay is reshaped. The potter's purpose is not to destroy his work, but rather, to make a more perfect work -- to shape and fashion something more beautiful and more functional.

In like fashion, God is at work in our lives, shaping and making us into the people he longs for us to be so that we might bring glory to him and be of maximum use to him in the building of his kingdom.

Which would you rather be? A vessel of your own design, based upon your finite mind and limited creativity, power, and wisdom -- a vessel of limited use and passing value? Or a vessel of his design, based upon his infinite wisdom, love, and power -- a vessel of unlimited use and eternal, unmeasured value?

In choosing to be fashioned by God, we inevitably must choose to yield to brokenness and to allow God to remake us and renew us as he desires -- even if that means suffering pain, hardship, and trials.

Brokenness can be a path towards great blessing, but only when we allow God to do the breaking and to design the blessing."

-- Charles Stanley
The Blessing of Brokenness