Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.
Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something at the wheel. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter, so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make. (Jer. 18:3-4)
God shows the prophet a parable of the world’s history: God the Great Artisan, men and nations His creation. Jeremiah is instructed to go down to the potter’s house, the place he performs his daily tasks—boring, repetitious, uneventful, yet this is where God wants to impart His truths to the one willing to listen. Jeremiah sees the potter making something at the wheel. The wheel turns round and round, so do the nations and so does the individual. Actually, he saw 2 wheels—one worked with the potter’s feet, the other turning the clay; the clay responding to the potter’s touch. A picture of earth, God’s footstool, man’s life surrounded by God, ordering man’s circumstances. Jeremiah may have noticed that the potter’s hands work in one direction while the wheel turns in the opposite direction. Such observation would lead him to understand that when men and nations yield their will to the gentle touch of the Master Potter’s Fingers, a vessel is created. A vessel fit for the purpose for which it was intended. He also may have noticed that it was the potter who did the work, the clay had only to respond to his fingers.
This vessel had become ruined. Without enough water, the clay may have become hard and brittle, unyielding to the potter as he turned it on the wheel. It may have fallen away from the potter’s hands and off the wheel. It may not have been properly centered on the wheel, or it may have been spinning too fast. So it is with us. We become hardened to the Lord’s touch, falling away from Him, our lives spinning ever faster until we no longer take time to re-center ourselves on Jesus, unwilling to submit to His gentle touch in our lives. By His grace, when we seek His face, He forgives our sin and heals our land (2 Chron. 7:14). Whatever the reason, the potter remade the vessel into something that seemed good to him to make. When we yield our marred, broken lives to God, He makes us into something of value as well.
Are you allowing the Lord, the Master Potter, to gently shape you with His gentle touch or are you becoming stiff and brittle, in need of being remade? Today is the perfect day to say, “Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way! Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.”