Jeremiah 18:1-4, NIV
‘This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Go down to the potter’s house and there I will give you my message.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him’.
I love the parables in the Word of God – pictures that speak a pure message of truth right into the heart of man. Many times God has spoken to me personally through the ordinary things of life – never more powerfully than when I, as a young man, started to restore an old car. After doing many hours of work I discovered that the steel frame (the chassis) on which the car was built was bent. I was heart-broken, but at that very moment I suddenly became aware of the voice of God speaking into my spirit!
He was saying, “You could restore this broken car, but I can restore broken lives.” And then He asked me a question I’ve never forgotten, “Which is more important – restoring broken cars or restoring broken lives?” At that moment of time I wanted to say ‘the car’! But I knew that was the wrong answer. It was at that moment that God birthed in me the vision for what eventually became Ellel Ministries. I found myself looking at that broken car with the eyes of the spirit instead of the eyes of the flesh and in a flash the whole direction of my life was changed.
Jeremiah had a similar experience when he went down to the house of the potter. He saw the potter making a vessel on his wheel. Then, as so often happens, the shape of the vessel was spoiled in the potter’s hand. But did the potter throw the clay away? No, he simply reworked it on the wheel and started again with the same clay to reshape it into a good vessel. We may see the broken car or the spoiled vessel and think they are useless and good for nothing. God looks and sees the potential that they still have and He rejoices when they are restored or reshaped and put back into service in the Kingdom of God.
You may be feeling rather like a spoiled pot or a car with a broken chassis, but may I encourage you to lift up your head and rejoice, for the restorer of souls is at hand – and He wants your life to rejoice once again with a new sense of purpose. Face the issues in your life, with Him, which have caused the damage and then give Him permission to put you back on His ‘wheel’ and see what the Master Potter can do.
Prayer: Thank you, Lord, that You are the master restorer. Help me, Lord, to see the places where I have made mistakes so that together we can put things right. Then, put me back on Your wheel and reshape me in the way that best fits Your plans for the rest of my days. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
