Trusting Myself in the Potter’s Hands: In the Studio

Jun 30

Do you want me to make you new again? Do you want your old life with its old problems and old mistakes to remain? Or go away? Would you rather I show you a new way to look at your life, your job, your relationships, your past? It is all new, all possibilities ahead, you see.

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It is sometimes hard to trust that God can change us and do something new and good in us. We can more easily believe that we’re just too far gone to be molded by loving hands, shaped by the One who knows us, who adores us.

Today, as we gather with Him, let’s begin a conversation with God about whether or not we believe in His original plan for our lives—that we are glorious, victorious, shining bright with His light as His love fills us again and again.

But first, let’s take a deep breath, settling into this space. Let’s begin with some stretches–rolling our shoulders up, down, and around. Rotating our wrists, flexing our ankles and toes. And now let’s inhale deeply for the count of four….then hold for a count of four…and then exhale for a count of four. Let’s repeat this a few times.

Next, let’s surrender to God all the things on our minds this day–giving Him every concern, every worry, every problem, every preoccupation.

Father, I give you…..I give you…. (name each concern)

And also, let’s consecrate our imaginations to Him now as we contemplate His words in scripture and as we engage with His heart.

Lord, I consecrate my imagination. I give you my mind, my ideas, my heart…. Fill me with your love now. Help me to hear your voice. Help me to relax into your love and be with You now.

Then, let’s consider the following verses from Jeremiah, reading them slowly a few times:

“God told Jeremiah, ‘Up on your feet! Go to the potter’s house. When you get there, I’ll tell you what I have to say.’

So I went to the potter’s house, and sure enough, the potter was there, working away at his wheel. Whenever the pot the potter was working on turned out badly, as sometimes happens when you are working with clay, the potter would simply start over and use the same clay to make another pot” (Jeremiah 18:1-4, MSG).

Imagine yourself now with your Father God, the Potter. Imagine His studio, the light spilling through an open window and illuminating the work table, the tools, the damp clay clumped together so lovingly by the Potter’s two hands.

The Potter studies the clay, works it, massages it, and shapes it into what it was always intended to be. For it was never intended to remain just a lump of clay. No—it’s meant to become a beautiful vessel held by the Father: His love pouring in, filling until it overflows, and spilling out repeatedly.

It is slow work. It is deliberate and careful. It is measured and sure. When the clay rebels, resisting the hands of the One who loves, the Potter does not force it to move, bend, or soften. He waits. He watches. He adds drops of water. He keeps it moist so it doesn’t dry. He stands guard over the clay day and night, loving what it is, even now, yet imperfectly formed. For the Potter sees what the clay truly is. The Potter sees what the clay in His hands will be.

It is the Potter who sees all possibilities ahead. And our faith gives us hope to believe in this possibility for ourselves. There is so much more for us in this life than our eyes can see. But the Potter sees it now. So it is what He sees, what our Father sees, that we must trust.

Are you willing to be clay in your Father’s hands? Are you willing to ask Him what He sees? How the cracks in your heart can be mended by his love? How your mistakes are forgiven, and your life made new again? How your weakness, declared with conviction and hope, points to the Father’s strength and love and goodness in you right now?

Tell Him what you’re thinking…what you’re feeling…

Father….

In the hands of the Potter, anything is possible. When we let Him shape us. When we decide to trust Him and His hands upon our life. When we allow the healing hands of the Potter to make what has been broken and weakened into something glorious, resilient, and brilliant.

He sees it—the possibility of newness, of life, of freedom—and we have the opportunity, if we want to, to see it too.

So, right now, surrender your imagination to God and see yourself standing in the studio. You are watching your Father, the Potter, lovingly mold the clay that is your life—that is you. You watch His eyes as He studies the clay. You notice the deftness of His fingers, the strength of His forearms, the kindness of His gaze. He loves you.