Dear Ones,
Happy weekend! We enjoyed a beautiful trip to the lake yesterday, and we saw Ann’s family, friends who are recovering from sickness and surgery and our friend in Assisted Living. Today is more baking and cleaning.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
We are all like clay pots that are useful and originals. I am reading the book of Jeremiah and God told him to get up on his feet and go to the Potter’s house and He would give him a message. He said, “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house and there I will let you hear my words.” (Jer.18:2) He obeyed and probably wondered what God would teach him. He noticed  the mass of clay put on the wheel and the skilled hands that began shaping a vessel. Eugene Peterson writes how no pottery is just a clay pot but an art form as well—a thing of beauty with a particular shape and painted, glazed and fired. It was useful but something to also behold!

Jeremiah now saw things in a new way from this experience, how God (the potter) is making people in His image and for His glory. Every one of us has a unique part to play in what God is doing and it is like no one else. Now we have all blown it badly at times, and the potter has to use the same clay and start over. He doesn’t give up (PTL!) or throw us away but begins to make another pot with the same clay.

In Jeremiah’s instance God was saying that as the potter works the clay, He tries to get the children of Israel to change from their wickedness. He doesn’t give up if they will repent and willingly let Him shape them. God used Jeremiah to confront the people and he preached to them. It was not an easy assignment for Jeremiah was living what he preached and they didn’t want to hear. Just as God shaped Jeremiah before being born, God wanted to work on the people and shape them for His purpose.

God forms us for His purpose and uses our lives as a message to others also. He is shaping us by His own hands to create an original and a message. Yes, it is painful when He has to shape us again but the result is we become a useful vessel and thing of beauty.

Challenge for today: Let God shape you into a beautiful pot to bring glory to Him!
Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy