"In The Hand Of The Potter"

by Toms, A. F. | Category: General | Jul 1957

The potter, the wheels and the clay were what Jeremiah saw when, at the divine bidding, he went down to the potter's house that day.

The material, an ordinary lump of common clay, lay on the wheel.

Of itself, it was of very little value, having been dug from the earth.

But the wheels began to turn, and the potter's hands to move, and lo, out from that formless mass of clay a vessel appeared, a thing of usefulness and beauty.

Watch the potter at his work. The expression of his face reveals the interest it has for him. Even before his fingers start to move he has a plan in mind. He can see the ultimate, the finished vessel, and towards that goal he works. Little by little the thing takes shape. Some pressure here and a little there, until eventually there emerges the completed vessel, ready for the use of its maker. How pregnant are the lessons of the potter's house when we remember Isaiah's words

"But now, 0 LORD, Thou art our Father; we are the clay, and Thou our Potter; and we all are the work of Thy hand" (64.8).

"The work of Thy hand." Yes, for it is God who worketh in us "both to will and to work, for His good pleasure." The Divine Potter is at work in your life and mine, to make us into vessels for His use. How well we answer to the clay! From the dust of the earth we have been taken, with no power of ourselves to form us into anything useful. But what infinite possibilities under the skill of the Potter's hands! He longs to fashion each of us "a vessel unto honour meet for the Master's use," and that He will do, if only we are prepared to yield ourselves to the pressure of His hands.

The secret lies in the skilfulness of His hands, which are continually at work. The vessel has to be "worked" and shaped beneath the Potter's hand. Sometimes the process is long and arduous, and it becomes more so if we resist the work that He is trying to do. David said, "Day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me," but that was only until he acknowledged his sin, and the lesson had been learned.

We, too, love our own way, young Christian, do we not? We feel we must stick up for our rights. But wait! Perhaps we are wrong in that, for what rights have we?

"Hath not the potter a right over the clay?" (Romans 9.21).

"Cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay in the potter's hand, so are ye in Mine hand ... "(Jeremiah 18.6).

Ah Christian, is that not what we so often forget? We have no rights apart from Him who made us, and then redeemed us by precious blood, and if only we would bow, acknowledging that, how quickly the vessel would take shape! Those disappointments, which seem so hard to bear at the time; the cherished hopes, which fail of fruition; the rough places through which life's pathway leads; the loneliness perchance when we longed for someone in whom to confide; may they not all be the pressure of the Potter's hand? He is at work, and how thankful we are that He is, for without His working our lives could never be anything for Him.

Young disciple, mind not the pressure of the Potter's hands.

He has a plan in view for all our lives, and the more we yield, the quicker that plan will take shape. Rather let us respond and say,

"Have Thine own way, Lord, have Thine own way,

Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.

Mould me and make me after Thy will,

While I am waiting, yielded and still."

And when the vessel is ready, it shall be for the Master's use. One of its uses the apostle Paul explains when he says,

"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves" (2 Corinthians 4.7).

To hold that treasure - the treasure of the gospel; could anything be grander than that? Could life hold a greater purpose than to receive that heaven-sent treasure and carry it out to men as the Lord Jesus commanded?

"Go ye ... make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you" (Matthew 28.19, 20).

For this purpose would we not be willing to be "pressed on every side ... perplexed ... pursued ... always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body"?

Toms, A. F. | Jul 1957
General