211. The Hands of a Potter
Jeremiah 18:6 O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? Saith the Lord, Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.
We are clay on the potter’s wheel, ready to be molded and shaped according to the desires of the potter. This actually is a wonderful promise: I am in God’s hands. We naturally resist that truth, but when the Spirit brings us to faith, we are very glad to accept this for the great promise that it is. If I believe in Jesus then I know beyond any doubt that God is good. Then I place myself in His hands, and I can rest assured that that is a good place to be. By faith we surrender and say to the Lord, “I am in your hands. Mold me and shape me according to your good and gracious will.”
This is a promise we need to take hold of many times, especially in those times when we don’t understand what God is doing or why He is doing it. It is not so easy to believe that the Lord always knows what He is doing, and that He is doing it for our good. “Why did God allow this to happen? I don’t know, but I am in God’s hands and He will always make good come out of it.”
We may not like to admit it, but, like Job, we will finally surrender ourselves to the shaping hands of the Lord. We have to admit that, no matter how good I think I am, we still have rough edges that need to be trimmed. Or, in a different metaphor, we need to be pruned. I am always a work in progress and God is not finished with me yet. So we stay on the potter’s wheel and remain in God’s good hands.
There are two dangers we face: 1) One danger is the temptation to jump off the wheel and out of God’s hands. We don’t like the shaping process and we don’t like what God is doing. So people give up on God and turn their back on Him and ignore or deny God, mostly because He didn’t do what they thought He should do. They don’t want to be in God’s hands because the shaping process hurts. 2) The second danger is similar. It is hardening prematurely, and getting permanently stuck in the present unfinished shape we are in. “Do not harden your heart.” When we complain or ask “Why?” we either jump off the wheel or harden the heart. We cannot know the reasons why, but we can know that God knows. And it is a good reason. In God’s hands all things work together for good. Stay in His good hands and let the Potter do his work.