First Notes: Take Me, Mold Me, Use Me, Fill Me

Dear First Baptist Family, 

What would we do without the variety of jars and containers we use each day? Just this week, I have used peanut butter jars, mason jars with salsa, containers of milk, carafes of coffee, and glasses for beverages. That’s a small sample of the ways that jars and containers provide a good use for my life. 

Did you know that the Bible says that your life is like a jar? The Apostle Paul refers to our bodies as being “jars of clay” that hold the power of God (2 Corinthians 4:7, NIV). Jeremiah compares Israel to a vessel on the potter’s wheel. Isaiah cries out to God, “We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand” (Isaiah 64:8, NIV). 

What does this powerful metaphor teach us about God and ourselves? 

God as Creator and Artist

According to Genesis 2:7, God formed humans from the dust of the ground. Each of us is a unique vessel in the hands of God. Like a skilled potter, God knows how to apply the right pressure, score us with God’s fingertips, and shape us into the design God has in mind. 

We can imagine the potter’s wheel as representing life's constant challenges and trials. God uses the everyday events we encounter to sculpt us into the image of Christ.

It's been a while, but I have taken up oil painting in the last decade. I love working with the colors, having a vision for what a canvas can be, then seeing what emerges. My experience is that there is a special connection between artist and creation. I love the process of creating, and while hesitant to share my work with others, I feel a sense of pride and joy when something beautiful is created. 

The Bible says that God is at work in us “for His good pleasure” (see Philippians 2:13). God loves to see us develop, grow, and bring good things to others as God’s unique creations!

God as Sovereign

A sovereign is a supreme leader or ruler. Just as a potter has the right to shape and form the clay according to their own vision, God has the ultimate authority over God’s creation. 

What’s more, when a potter sits at the wheel, the potter has control over the speed of the wheel, how the vessel is formed, and when the process is complete. Our lives are in God’s hands from beginning to end. 

So what does this mean for our lives? How should we respond? 

Humility

We need to continually remember that we are dust. We’re not in charge, we’re not made for our own purposes, and we’re not able to tell the Potter what should or should not be allowed. 

Isaiah 45:9 (ESV) says, “Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker, those who are nothing but potsherds among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘The potter has no hands’?”

Instead, we are called to not complain, but to live by faith and trust. When the pressure comes, we trust that God allows it for a good purpose. 

Pliability

Yesterday I told the story of Adelaide Pollard who wrote the hymn Have Thine Own Way in 1902. You may recall the words: Have thine own way, Lord, have thine own way. Thou art the potter, I am the clay. 

Those verses came to Adelaide in a season of heartbreak. She wanted to go to Africa as a missionary, but funds were not sufficient. Adelaide then attended a prayer meeting for some comfort. However, she was struck by a prayer from an elderly woman, who said, “It really doesn’t matter what you do with us, Lord, just have your own way in our lives.”

Adelaide began to reflect on Jeremiah 18:1-3 where God tells the prophet to go to the potter’s house to receive a message. Jeremiah watched the potter at the wheel as the potter saw a blemish. The potter then began to shape the pot again.

Had God delayed Adelaide’s Africa mission in order to shape her differently, to refine her for God’s purposes? She didn’t know, but she was willing to yield herself to the Potter’s hands. While I am waiting, yielded and still. Adelaide eventually made it to Africa as a missionary, all in God’s time.

Are you pliable — flexible — available — to be useful to God? God has a purpose for you. You may not always understand that purpose. If you seek great things for yourself and cling to your own purpose, you're essentially saying, "I want to be the potter, not the clay."

Let go of yourself and let your prayer be the words of an old praise song: Take me and mold me, use me, fill me, I give my life to the Potter's hand.

I love you and I’m glad to be in the process of being “shaped” with you.

Pastor Brent McDougal

P.S. One way that you can give a “jar” to help others is by supplying peanut butter for our FISH food pantry, which distributes food once a month. Our stocks are depleted due to the recent SNAP withholding of funds. We’re asking our congregants to bring jars of peanut butter over the next two Sundays to worship. Let’s do what we can to help hungry people have what they need.