The Cry of Moldable Clay
Posted: Wednesday, March 31, 2010 by Allen King in
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Some of the memories I hold dear from my childhood are the times when I would hear my parents pray. It seems that very often their prayer times would conclude by them breaking into singing. I can remember, on more than one occasion, my mom rising from prayer and singing, “Have Thine own way, Lord. Have Thine own way. Thou art the Potter. I am the clay. Mold me and make me after Thy will, while I am waiting, yielded and still.”
God told Jeremiah, “I know the thoughts that I think toward you... to give you an expected end.” (Jeremiah 29:11). Those are some of the most powerful words in all of scripture, dealing with the relationship between God and His children.
Isn’t it wonderful to realize that God did not just fling us out into the nebulous of life and then forget about us? He has a plan for each of us. He has a will for each of our lives.
Unlike some would convey, He doesn’t play divine games of hide-and-seek. We are not simply pawns on some cosmic sacred chessboard.
I think that far too often, we think the will of God is an elusive idea. God wants to make His will known to us sometimes even more desperately than we claim to be seeking to know His will. Our problem is not finding the will of God, it is in doing the will of God.
A lot of what we call trying to find God’s will is actually trying to change God’s mind. He has a plan, but too often we have a mind-set--a preconceived notion of what we want to do and who we want to be. So, we pray and pray and maybe even fast a day or two. We try to change God’s mind, to convince Him our plan is better than His.
When God took Jeremiah to the potter’s house, it was to speak to the prophet concerning Israel
God was trying to convey to Jeremiah—and then to Israel
We don’t have to pray to get God in a good mood. We don’t pray to purchase power with Him to buy our own way. Days of fasting don’t add purchase power to our prayers. We pray—and we fast—to enhance our relationship with Him.
When He places you on the wheel, He molds you into the best you can possibly be or become for Him. However, there must be a willingness on your part. We can pray for God’s will for our lives until our knees are calloused and our faces turn blue, but if we do not allow ourselves to be moldable, there is nothing more God can do in us or through us. The power to become a useful vessel is in the clay. If it is unwilling to be molded, the potter has no recourse but to either start the process all over again or toss it aside and get more clay.
Don’t miss this. The same sun that melts butter, also hardens clay. It is in the substance. It is not the sun. You must be melted before you can be molded.
There are those times when God sends us into a meltdown. Everything seems to be falling apart. Financial dilemmas, family stresses, work issues make us physically and emotionally exhausted.
We take the pieces and say. “Lord, please put me back together...” and unspoken but not unfelt is the specification, “but put me back together again just like I was.”
God will always give you the best if you leave the choice to Him. What we must do is bring our human mind and its frailties into submission to the mind of Christ. The divine mind and the human mind bring the flesh—the clay—under control.
The prayer of a surrendered mind, heart, and will is “Not my will, but Thine be done.” That is the cry of moldable clay. That is the power cry of human surrender to divine intervention.
“Have Thine own way, Lord
Have Thine own way.
Thou art the Potter. I am the clay.
Mold me and make me
After Thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.”