Have you been smashed?

When a woman goes shopping for a dress, or a man tries on a new suit, they are looking for something that is flattering to their particular shape and figure. We come in all shapes and sizes, and buy all the magazines telling us how, or watch the TV shows that show giving us advice, or go to the gym to actually TRY to change the shape we are in! When you use a  muscle you haven’t used in a while, you will be so sore that it is very difficult to move, or you might even pull or sprain one in the effort to change your shape. What I am trying to say is, “no pain, no gain”, it hurts to change.

In our spiritual walk and lives sometimes we just have to turn ourselves over to the “Master” potter to get the change we need. Jeremiah 18:4-7 “So I went to the potter’s house, and sure enough, the potter was there, working away at his wheel.” Whenever the pot the potter was working on turned out badly, as sometimes happens when you are working with clay, the potter would simply start over and use the same clay to make another pot. Then God’s Message came to me: “Can’t I do just as this potter does,” God’s Decree! “Watch this potter. In the same way that this potter works his clay, I work on you.”  Isaiah 64:8 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. If you want to sculpt your body you go to the gym, pump iron, sweat and work until you make yourself look the way you like, but if you want to look like God, He has to be the Trainer that you trust to mold you into the person that is pleasing in His sight. Watch trainers work with people in the gym, they are not easy on them; they sometimes bring them to tears! Are you going to complain? Romans 9:20-21 Who in the world do you think you are to second-guess God? Do you for one moment suppose any of us knows enough to call God into question? Clay doesn’t talk back to the fingers that mold it, saying, “Why did you shape me like this?” Isn’t it obvious that a potter has a perfect right to shape one lump of clay into a vase for holding flowers and another into a pot for cooking beans? Trust Him enough to place yourself in His hands and see what kind of vessel He makes of you.

When Jesus bowed in the Garden to pray, the human part of Him did not want to suffer and die on a cross: Luke 22:41 He pulled away from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and prayed, “Father, remove this cup from me. But please, not what I want. What do you want?” I can’t even imagine facing this grueling death, but He yielded to the Master Potter and allowed Himself to be crucified on that cross to become our redemption. We sing the old chorus: Have Thine own way Lord, have Thine own way, You are the potter, I am the clay, mold me and make me after your will, while I am waiting, yielded and still. Have you ever given thought to those words as you sang them? You have given Him permission to mold you and sometimes that hurts, but, as it is with your physical training, the gain is well worth the pain! Psalm 139:23 “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.”

If you are currently in a smashed condition, don’t be afraid to be molded into a new shape, you might be happily surprised!