Make Me

“This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ‘Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.’  So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. Then the word of the Lord came to me. He said, ‘Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?’ declares the Lord. ‘Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel’ (Jeremiah 18:1-6).

I have been honing in on the names of God for over a month, now.

Yesterday, I began the very cool task of coming up with my own instead of going to a website for a list of names of God.

If you sit in the quiet for a few moments and think about who God is for you today, what would that be? Yesterday, for me, He was “God, the Touchable One.” Today, He is God, the ‘Teacher.’

If you look carefully at the photo above, you’ll see the potter using instruments to better shape the clay. The potter (artist, refiner and teacher) pokes and prods and spins the clay a thousand times. The clay (or person) on the potter’s wheel feels disoriented, foggy, confused, hurt, disappointed.

“Stop!” the person cries, “I can’t take anymore!”

I think back to all the times God put me on that wheel. It has been immediately my desire to jump off and do my own thing. “I can do without all this pain, thank you very much!”

But God’s hands are:

POWERFUL,
WONDERFUL,
CREATIVE,
LOVING,
And seeking my good at all times.

He is my Savior, and He uses His instruments:

To rescue me from myself,
To help me survive (thrive) this evil world and all that comes against me,
And to help me know that He is the only one I can truly trust to do what needs to be done in me.

The more I trust Him, the more I stay on that wheel, willingly.

What instruments does God use for ME?

He uses everything in my life…good and bad, terrible and sad, awesome and incredible. He uses them all. God is kind and compassionate, but He cannot stand sin in me. He will use whatever it takes to empty me of self and make and mold me into His Son, Jesus Christ.

He uses the bad (what the enemy does in my life) to make me lean on Him more. He uses the good to remind me that the good is never good enough and to make me lean on Him more.

God is my Teacher. When I remain on that potter’s wheel, I am open to His lessons. He is my greatest teacher. It may not feel ‘safe,’ at times, but obeying Him is by far the safest place on earth for my soul. My body or my emotions may get hurt, but God makes all things new. I trust Him, completely.

“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland” (Isaiah 43:19).

Father, I come to you and willingly take my place on your potter’s wheel. I see your hand with its instruments and I tearfully submit. I hear your voice, calling me to be still under your mighty hand. I taste the mud and dirt in my mouth, but I stay. This is no fun. I smell the scent of your presence near me and that brings me comfort. I reach out and touch your fingers and trust you with everything in me, for you are the Touchable One. Oh, Rock and Fortress of mine, please lead and guide me. Teach me your will. I am sitting still on the wheel of God. Set me free in you to forever worship your name, Rabboni, my Beloved Teacher! In Jesus name, Amen.

“Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name lead and guide me” (Psalm 31:3 NIV).