Submit Like Clay, Live Like A Vessel

You may have heard the lyric in the old hymn Have Thine Own Way, Lord that goes "Thou art the Potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me after Thy will."

We sing that on Sunday mornings and call it to mind on different occasions, but are we really ready for the reformations God wants to make in our lives? Are we really prepared for the changes God has in store? If not, why not?

In Jeremiah 18, God really gives us a picture of what this is like. He tells the prophet Jeremiah to go down to the potter's house where He will announce His word to him. (verses 1-2)
  Jeremiah may have thought that this was an odd request, but God said to do it, so he did. God knew that sometimes the best way to teach people things is to give them a visual picture.
   When Jeremiah arrives, he sees that the potter is spinning something on the wheel, "But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make." (verses 3-4) "Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, 'Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?' declares the Lord. 'Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.'" (verses 5-6)
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What we see here is the reformation of a vessel. God is presenting Himself as the Potter, and us as the clay. 
   God, by His prophet Isaiah, made use of the same similitude in Isaiah 64:8
  God lets Jeremiah observe the work of the potter and says "Can I not...deal with you as this potter does (his clay)?" (verse 6)
   Here we see God expounding to His prophet His design in instructing him to go to the potter's house, it was to instruct or confirm to him in the power He had over his creation.
  What we must first recognize then, is our natural state as the clay, and the process in which God works as the Potter. 
  Verse 4 refers to the clay, before the potter starts working on it, as a "spoiled vessel". Paul describes them in the book of Romans as "vessels of wrath" (Romans 9:22).

  What does God do with spoiled vessels of wrath? He recreates them the way He pleases. What we must notice here is the fact that God may choose not to recreate certain vessels, but he does recreate. 
   God has made a plan for everyone of his vessels, and calls them vessels for a very specific reason. Vessels are used for whatever purpose the user chooses to use them for. Vessels cannot move themselves to do anything. Only can the one to whom the vessels belong move them.

   Again, in the same way vessel cannot complain to their creator "Why did you make me like this?" (Romans 9:20) 
   The potter who creates the vessels—which in our case is God—has the right make whatever he wants from the clay and use it in anyway he wants. (Romans 21-22) Our job as the clay is to submit to our Divine Potter.
  Clay is nothing on it's own. It is a dead and useless clump. But God does something with His vessels, not the same thing to every vessel, but all to the same end—His glory.

  As God is working in your—the vessel's—life, there will be pressure. Just as the potter has to press hard at the clay from all sides to get it into the shape he desires, so does God have to put pressure into your life, so that you may become the vessel He wants you to be.
  So when you face hardships, be convinced that God has a plan and that He is making sure you are forming into the vessel he requires.

  Knowing this, how will you live? In his second letter to Timothy, Paul answers, "Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, 'The Lord knows those who are His," and, 'Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness.' Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work." (2 Timothy 2:19-21)
  We see that our Lord, the potter, know who are His, and we can tell who they are by the fact that they abstain from wickedness. The answer Paul gives shows us that not everyone is a vessel of honor. Only those of us that cleansed of all our iniquity and are set apart from the world and it's sinful ways can be called vessels of honor, useful to our master, and prepared, by God, for every good work.

  God has a plan. He has a use for you and for everyone He brings into the world. So I urge you to submit like clay, powerless under hands of our Master; and to live like a vessel of honor, sanctified and  useful to our Lord, bringing glory to him in all that you do.