PREACHER’S NOTE 23 JUNE 2024
Reluctant Clay
The most frequent argument I have
with God is who’s in control. I mean,
not saying it exactly like that – who
would directly take on the Creator of
the universe? I mean, more like, I’ve
got plans, and I get pretty sullen when
they get changed from under me.
The Bible is full of stories asking who is in control. Goliath
said he was, and that Israel’s army should just admit that
and surrender. But it took a smooth-faced teenager with
a slingshot and a fearless and obedient heart to show him
that was not the case. The storm on lake Galilee tried to
show the fearful disciples that when nature shows its
might, you’d better know who’s in control. It took a quiet
command from a man awakened from his sleep to show
that wasn’t so.
God told the prophet Jeremiah to go and visit a potter:
Jeremiah saw him taking clay and forming it to the shape
he desired. And when the clay was reluctant to take on
that shape, the potter took the same clay, folded it back
into a lump, and then gave it another shape. Jeremiah
learnt a lesson that day – God loves us, and blesses us
(and our church, and our country), but He is also molding
us. To His design, not ours. And if we rebel, and our form is
marred, He is quite willing and able to take us and make
wholesale changes in our lives.
That part hit home as I read it, bringing to mind the many
places where I know I am (and our church, and our country
are) resisting our Lord’s design, and we’re in danger of
having Him redesign us. Perhaps that’s already happening
– many things are changing, out of our control. Perhaps
we need to sit up, reconsider our ways, and understand
following Him in a far more humble way, learning to
be still and know that He is God.
Blessings, Andrew.