Made For Your Purpose

 

O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter;

we are all the work of your hand.

Isaiah 64:8

Isaiah put it well when he describes us as clay and God as the Potter. If any of you have had the chance to see a master potter at work you would be able to see the grace and care that is given in creating a piece. What starts off as a soft dirty piece of clay is transformed into a beautiful creation.

            I would like to share with you the process of making a container out of clay and what the process would look like from the clay’s point of view.

            The process of making a container, a vessel starts out with a misshapen, worthless lump of clay. It is beaten and wedged to get the air bubbles and other defects out. Then it is formed into a workable piece of clay. The clay must be thinking why, why do I need to go through this? Why is the potter doing this to me? It does not realize the kneading is helping it be shaped. We often question God when we are going through a hard time not realizing that it is to help shape us into the person God wants us to be.

            Next the potter slams the clay on the potter’s wheel forcing it onto the round metal surface. The wheel is turned on and the clay begins to spin. The potter squeezes the clay to get it right in the center of the wheel. Now the clay must be getting dizzy and thinking it is being tortured. The clay does not understand that if it is not in the center it would be uneven and would not be strong. Just as we must center ourselves in God’s will. If we stray away from living a Christ centered life and if we allow the pleasures of the flesh to put us unbalanced we will become weak just as clay that is not centered.

            The potter then must decide what form and function the vessel will have. The potter can make all different types of pieces however; no two are exactly alike. He purposely and willfully makes the clay into the vessel He chooses. He plans the function the vessel will have and equips it accordingly. How true this is in our lives, God has uniquely made each and every one of us for a specific purpose and has equipped us with the necessary skills and abilities.

After the clay has been formed it is put aside to dry. Now the clay must be thinking what a relief it is that the whole process is over. The potter has designed the form in which I now reside. However the process is not over. The clay has some rough edges. It still must be trimmed. A wire tool is used to scrape off the rough edges and then can be burnished further to make it smooth. We too have rough edges, and even when we feel we are in a place that we are satisfied, God still works on us to make us even smoother than we were before.

            The clay must be thinking finally it is all over I am finished. I am in the form the Potter wants me to be in. However, the clay is still brittle and can be broken easily. It needs to be put into a kiln and heated up to over 1500 degrees. The clay does not know that the kiln is for its own good and will make it stronger. The clay must think the potter is not happy with him and that it is being destroyed in the fire. Like the clay, we may be going through heated times in our lives and it seems we are struggling to get by. We may feel God is not happy with us and is using these difficult times in our lives to punish us. But that is not true. Just as the heat is necessary to make the clay strong our trials and temptations can make us stronger.

            After the kiln is cooled down the clay is now taken out. It is no longer brittle but strong. The clay rejoices that he has finally made it through the whole ordeal. The Potter says, “You are not done yet” and then covers it with a suffocating liquid. “Why?” the clay asks, “am I not stronger and in the form you created me to be in?” The potter replies, “You are not finished yet, I am making you to glorify me. If I do not paint you with this glaze you would be worthless to hold any liquid because it would leak out. This glaze will seal you and make you shine.” But the glaze is dull and not yet shiny. After the clay is glazed it must be fired in a second kiln, one that is even hotter than the first, reaching up to 2700 degrees. This firing will activate the glaze and transform it into beautiful colors that will shine of the master potter’s glory. The clay may feel like it can not take any more, just as we may become discouraged when we face difficult times, times that are harder than ever before. We may feel like we can not go on, but God is with us and using these times to help us become worthy vessels.

Likewise, God is working on and making us able to be used for his purpose in mind. God may put something on us that we may feel is a burden at first but then realize it is for a purpose and will allow us to shine with beauty.

Just as the Potter has molded the clay and transformed it from a misshapen lump into a beautiful vessel, God also desires to mold us into a worthy vessel to be used for his purpose. The potter creates the purpose for his creation just as God does. He has created us to give him glory. We are made by God and for God. We were molded to serve, just as the potter’s vessel is created to serve and be used.

            Without the care of the potter’s hand the vessel would not have been formed. The clay is dependent on the Potter. Isaiah also writes in chapter 29 verse 16 “You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!  Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘He did not make me’?  Can the pot say of the potter, ‘He knows nothing’?” It is easy in this day and age to ignore God and create our own purpose in our life. The clay cannot create its own purpose. It is made with the potter’s purpose in mind. Just as we are made with God’s purpose in mind. We are merely the creation, but God is the Creator.  He created us and shaped us to fulfill his will. God has planned out every part of us. We are formed as vessels to serve and to give glory to our maker. God is the master potter and we are merely the clay.

Lord we may be far from a finished vessel, but work on us and smooth out any rough edges we might have.

Lord use us this morning and through out our day as a vessel of your service to glorify our Maker. Amen.