Becoming like Clay

Jeremiah 18:1-6

1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD : 2 "Go down to
the potter's house, and there I will give you my message." 3 So I went
down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 4 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.
5 Then the word of the LORD came to me: 6 "O house of Israel, can I
not do with you as this potter does?" declares the LORD. "Like clay in
the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.

We humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.

Giving up control may be difficult for us. When we get ready for God
to remove our shortcomings, we still may want to control how he does
it. We're so used to calling the shots that we'll ask for God's help
as long as he does it on our terms. We may demand that the changes
happen on our timetable, or in the order we feel ready to give them
up, or at a speed convenient to us.

God doesn't work that way. That is why humility is such an important
part of this step. God told Jeremiah to go to the house of the potter
to learn a lesson. Jeremiah said, "I did as he told me and found the
potter working at his wheel. But the jar he was making did not turn
out as he had hoped, so he crushed it into a lump of clay again and
started over. Then the Lord gave me this message: . . . Can I not do
to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the
potter's hand, so are you in my hand" (Jeremiah 18:3-6). God told
Isaiah, "What sorrow awaits those who argue with their Creator. Does a
clay pot argue with its maker? Does the clay dispute with the one who
shapes it, saying, ‘Stop, you're doing it wrong!' Does the pot
exclaim, ‘How clumsy can you be?'?" (Isaiah 45:9).

When we put our lives in God's hands he will reshape them as he sees
fit. It is our attitude of humility that allows us to accept the fact
that he is the Creator. Our new life may be similar to the one we left
behind, or entirely different. God is the master craftsman. Whatever
he does, we can trust that he will recreate our lives beautifully once
we get out of his way!

When we ask him to, God reshapes our lives into something wonderful.