◄ What Does Jeremiah 18:4 Mean? ►

But the vessel he was working on with the clay was ruined in the potter's hand. So he remade it into another vessel that seemed appropriate to him.

Jeremiah 18:4(ISV)

Verse of the Day

Jeremiah was facing difficult times, and the Lord wanted to teach him a special lesson so that He could understand why such hard times were coming upon the nation of Israel. So He sent Jeremiah to the house of the potter, where Jeremiah started to understand God's truths. Jeremiah saw the skill and wisdom of the potter as he formed and fashioned a pot on his turning wheel, and as he fired and baked the pot in the furnace of fire.

Through all the twists and turns of the rotating wheel as well as the heat of baking kiln, the artistry and skill of the potter was used to shape and mould and form and complete whatever vessel the potter in his wisdom chose to make. And if the clay in the hands of the potter was ruined in process, he would set to, to refashion it into another vessel - a good vessel - a vessel that seems right to him.

We are like that clay that has been taken up by our heavenly Potter to be fashioned and formed as He thinks best. The daily round of life and the common tasks we face seem to go around in circles, and the fires of affliction and pressures of life, at times, seem hard to bear. But we are His children. We are the clay in the hands of our Father Who is shaping, moulding, forming, and completing us into the person He wants us to be - a vessel fit for His use.

Sometimes we think we should be up and doing for the Lord if we are to become a useful vessel for Him. But the picture of the potter demonstrates that the vessel that stays patiently in the hands of our heavenly Potter, as He carries out His best purpose in our lives, is the one that will be formed and fashioned as is best for us.

But inevitably sometimes, as He turns us on the rotating wheel of life, His training can feel very unpleasant. Sometime as He squeezes us into the shape of His choice, it can become so uncomfortable. Sometimes, as we are being baked in the fiery kiln of life, the pressures we face become unbearable. When this happens, just remember that "the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ."

Let us trust ourselves into the hands of our heavenly Potter, for they were wounded for us. He will shape us and mould us, fashion us and form us into the vessel that is best pleasing to Him.

My Prayer

Loving Father, thank You for the truths in Your Word. Thank You that You are forming me into the person You want me to be. Help me to lie willingly in Your hands, for I trust You to form me into the vessel that You want me to be, to Your praise and glory, AMEN.