"As it pleased the Potter...

"Then I went down to the potter's house, and there he was, making something on the wheel. But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make.

Jeremiah 18:3-4

Most of our days on this earth are made up of living life as it pleases us. For those who do not know Jesus Christ as Lord & Savior, this is all they know to do. But even the most devoted followers of Jesus Christ can find themselves questioning the purity of their motives. Even more dangerous is questioning the purity of God's motives. When life seems to be going very well for us, and then takes a drastic turn for what seems to be the worse, we need to be quick to remember...

"The LORD gives, and the LORD takes away. Blessed be the Name of the LORD." (Job 1:21)

When good health and seasons of blessing give way to fiery trials, do we remember that we are clay and not the Potter? Do we remember that even though our names may be on the deed/mortgage of our homes that it is really the Potter's house?

"For the earth is the LORD's, and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it." (Psalm 24:1)

As a follower of Jesus Christ, our names may be on our birth certificates, but who holds the certificates of our re-birth?

"Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price..." (1 Corinthians 6:19-20a)

What price was paid? The most selfless price of infinite value was made and has taken claim of your life if you are truly a follower of Jesus Christ.

"Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ." (1 Peter 1:18-19)

God created Adam from the clay (or dust) of the earth, and Adam fell into sin and became a corrupted lump of clay. Since all of mankind inherited Adam's sin nature at birth, we are also lumps of corrupted clay. Being the clay, it's never enjoyable to be squeezed, smashed down and re-shaped under the Potter's hand, but if He has chosen us to be a vessel of honor on His wheel, there is no better place to be! Just to know that we are on His wheel should fill us with joy considering the alternative. And even though it's painful as He continually re-shapes us into those vessels, we are ALWAYS under the skilled and loving hands of the Master Potter and nothing will stop Him from finishing the work He has begun on us. When we learn to live as completely submitted lumps of clay, fully trusting the Potter's loving hands, we will find in the end that we will be thoroughly pleased with what He has transformed us into - as it pleased the Potter to make.