Jeremiah 18:2-6 - "Go down to the shop where clay pots and
jars are made. I will speak to you while you are there." So I did as he told me and found the potter
working at his wheel. But the jar he was
making did not turn out as he had hoped, so the potter squashed the jar into a
lump of clay and started again. Then the LORD gave me this message: "O Israel, can I not do to you as this
potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in
my hand.
God sent Jeremiah to the potter’s shop…to watch him make a
vessel out of clay. While he was there…he
watched him completely destroy a pot he was making because it had too many
flaws. He changed his mind 180⁰….and decided to make a lamp instead of the pot
he was working on. It was a powerful…. visual way for God to let Jeremiah hear
the message of his ability to change his mind.
God went on to explain that if the people would change their
heart…he would change his decrees of curses and destruction. He would change every punishment that he had
planned for them into something good and blessed. But if they insisted on
having their own way…he would squash them like that clay…and start over with
his plan to make them HIS people.
The people had too many false prophets telling them what
they wanted to hear to listen to poor Jeremiah.
They were so tired of hearing his messages from God that they even plotted
to kill him. Their refusal to listen to God’s warnings eventually separated
them from the one way they could save themselves.
God has to squash me sometimes cause I don’t listen. He can send me the best object lesson to
teach me a simple truth and I mess it up…take it completely the wrong way….or spin
it in some selfish way that fits what I wanted to do anyway. I say selfishly
that I am reading the signs and confirmation he gives me….but I have ignored
the other signs and confirmation that he may have sent to help me move in
another direction. Sometimes my self-centered
hearing and eyesight totally misses the signs he sends to help me make the
choice he planned in the first place…my own self placed blinders.
Father… thank you for the reminder this morning that I still
have a lot of selfishness to remove from my heart and life. Forgive me for the times that I have misread your
will because I was too focused on myself.
Remove the blinders that keep me from seeing your will and hearing your
message clearly…..and help me to stop focusing so much on myself. Help me to use your eyes and ears to hear the
needs of others around me ….and watch you make me into a lamp that will shine
your light to everyone around me. Amen.
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