“Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee; and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” – Jeremiah 1:5
“The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 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.” (Jeremiah 18:1-6)
“In our background scripture, God woke Jeremiah out of his sleep and told him to go down to the Potter’s house and when he got there he had something for him to see (and I’m paraphrasing here). Jeremiah didn’t question what God
told him to do, unlike us. When God tells us to pray for our enemy, that is what He means for us to do because that may be where our deliverance lies. But we question God…God, why do I have to pray for my enemy, they don’t like me anyway…God why, why, why? We need to understand that our blessings are tied to obedience. There are some things God won’t release to us until we walk in obedience of His word.
There are three things we need to understand from this text:
(1) The purpose of the Potter – The Potter (God) decides the clay’s (our) purpose before it goes onto the wheel and He also decides what “qualities or character” this piece of clay needs in order to serve its intended “purpose”. If you’ve ever seen a potter work with a piece of clay, then you know that in order for the clay to take its intended form, the potter never takes his hands off of the clay while ‘it is on the wheel’.
(2) The purpose of the clay (us) – because the potter has already determined what the piece of clay will be when it is put on the wheel, it is the clay’s purpose to ‘yield’ to the direction of the potter’s hands. Jeremiah 18:4 tells us that the vessel was marred while in the hand of the potter, so he made it again. The word “mar” means damaged, hurt, disrupt. Yes, there will be times when we endure hardship, heartache, and pain while in the hands of the Potter, but Hebrews 13:5b says “He will never leave us nor forsake us”. It is at this point that if we yield (remain obedient) to the Potter’s hands He can make us whole again.
(3) The purpose of the wheel – the wheel controls the speed at which the potter turns the clay and has to be controlled by the Potter. The potter doesn’t stop the wheel until it is time to take the vessel off. This is why it is so important for us to stay on the wheel, because as long as we are on the wheel, we remain in His Will. If we stay on the wheel, God has the power to mold and make us the way He desires us to be. It is on the wheel where He can strip us of all impurities and make us clean vessels again.
Now, thinking on all that you are currently going through at this point and time in your life, coupled with all that you’ve already experienced, have you figured out yet that it’s all a part of your make-up? God has used all of that to develop your character. So no matter what comes your way, distractions, disappointments, distrust, diseases, just be sure to “Stay on the Wheel.”"
–written by Linda J. Guy–
