We are, in a literal sense, pottery. We’ve been formed from clay. God physically shaped Adam from the clay of the earth and breathed into him the breath of life. We are all humans, a word that is akin to the term humus, meaning
earth or clay. The apostle Paul referred to our bodies as
“jars of clay” (2 Corinthians 4:7 NIV).
But the Bible also tells us that God wants to spiritually fashion us into vessels fit for His use, molded as images of our Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul says God wants to form us into “a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work” (2 Timothy 2:21).
The patriarch Job concurred: “Your hands have made me and fashioned me... You have made me like clay” (Job 10:8-9). This gives us a biblical warrant for thinking of the events and influences of our lives as His hands and fingers, shaping us like a potter shaping clay.
First, God’s hands form us. And, His hands are on your life. He knows how to skillfully apply pressure, how to relax His grip, how to score your life with His fingernail, how to squeeze and nudge — all of it designed to make you a vessel fit for His use. Sometimes He even places us in the kiln where the fires of life turn us into more solid vessels for His use.
Romans 8:28 says that God works all things for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose, but the next verse gives us His purpose: “to be conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29).
Our heavenly Father wants to use the events we encounter each day as tools with which to shape and sculpt us into the image of Christ. He wants to deepen our faith, to develop within us the quality of perseverance, and to make us watertight containers of His love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
If you’re under some sort of pressure right now, visualize the skillful hands of the divine Potter using it for good in your life. Pray as Isaiah did: “But now, O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You our potter; and all we are the work of Your hand” (Isaiah 64:8). You can trust His dexterous and expert fingers not to harm, but to help you.
Sometimes we think we’re unusable, unredeemable. We’ve done something for which we feel shame and guilt, and we think God can no longer do much with us. Our problems are occasionally of our own making, and our pain arises from our own stupidity. But when we bring our sin to the Lord, confess it earnestly, nail it to the cross of Christ, and surrender it to the power of His shed blood, God can take our sins and shame and spin them into a design that glorifies Him.
Tim Carlisle
