“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.” Jer 18:1-4 (NIV)
God specializes in using broken vessels. Jeremiah noticed the potter shaping the pot as seemed best to him. Our life will be useful to God if we continually remember that God is the potter and we are the clay.
Maybe you have been on the Potter’s wheel in your life and you have experienced a season of suffering. God can use suffering to mold us and shape us. I remember a few years ago I was going through a difficult season of personal suffering and I decided to call one of my mentors. I remember asking him if maybe God was preparing me for my next assignment. He immediately responded by saying that, “God is always preparing you for your next assignment. But, your next assignment may be right where you are!”
Suffering is part of living on a broken planet. We live in a fallen world. Yet, God has the capacity of utilizing that suffering for our spiritual formation. Don’t expend your energy trying to detect the source of your suffering. Instead, ask God to show you what He wants to accomplish through your life in the midst of the suffering.
Bathsheba experienced the death of her warrior husband, the death of her infant son, and the moral drifting of her adult son, Solomon. In the midst of her suffering, God developed her into a Proverbs 31 woman.
Are you willing to allow God to place you on the Potter’s wheel to mold you and shape you into the image of Christ? Are you willing to allow God to develop your spiritual formation so that you can reach your full redemptive potential?
Pursuing God,
Stephen Trammell
Pastor of Leadership and Pastoral Care
0 replies on “Formation”
Do I ever need to be reminded of this!!!! I may not be working where I want to be but I’m where He’s placed me.
I trust in God to do with me, that which He has called me for. I must not turn to the left or right, but keeping my eyes on Jesus Christ and His calling. If I don’t know His calling, I will wait until He tells me. While waiting, I will study and pray, being shaped to please my Lord.