#140 THE POTTER STILL HAS HIS HANDS ON YOU 9-15-26

We should rejoice at the picture of the potter and the clay. The clay is not finished when it enters the potter’s hands. It is shapeless. It is marred. It needs pressure, water, patience, and the skilled touch of the one who knows what it can become. Jeremiah watched the potter working at his wheel and saw something that reveals the heart of God: “The vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel” (Jeremiah 18:4). He made it again. What a beautiful thought. God does not throw away what sin has damaged. He is the God who makes things new (2 Corinthians 5:17; Revelation 21:5).

Paul uses the same imagery in Romans 9: “Does not the potter have power over the clay?” (Romans 9:21). Whatever questions we may have about this difficult chapter, we must never separate Romans 9 from the character of God revealed throughout the Bible. The Potter is not cruel. He is merciful. He is patient. He is “the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth” (Exodus 34:6). And the fullest revelation of that heart is Jesus Christ, “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

THE POTTER SEES WHAT THE CLAY CAN BECOME

Clay cannot see what the potter sees. The clay only feels the pressure of the hand. It does not understand the wheel. It does not know why it is being pressed here or pulled there. It simply rests beneath the hand of the craftsman.

Sometimes life feels that way.

God allows circumstances to press us. He changes our plans. He closes doors we wanted open. He takes us through seasons we would never have chosen. Yet “we know that all things work together for good to those who love God” (Romans 8:28). We may not understand the process, but we can trust the Potter.

The pressure is not necessarily punishment. Sometimes the pressure is preparation. “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience” (James 1:2-3). Peter said that the testing of our faith is “much more precious than gold that perishes” (1 Peter 1:6-7). The wheel may turn, but the Potter has not lost control.

And remember what Jeremiah saw. The vessel was marred in the hand of the potter. It was damaged, but it was still in his hand. That may be where somebody needs to live today. You may be wounded. You may have failed. You may look at your life and see cracks where you once saw beauty. But if you have placed yourself in the hands of Christ, your story is not over.

“He restores my soul” (Psalm 23:3).

THE POTTER IS PATIENT WITH THE CLAY

Jeremiah does not say the potter became angry and threw the clay away. He made it again. God is patient with us.

Peter knew something about this. He denied Jesus three times, but Jesus was not finished with Peter. After the resurrection, Christ sought him out and restored him (John 21:15-17). That is grace.

God knows how fragile we are. “For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:14). He knows our weaknesses before we confess them. He knows our failures before we commit them. He knows the places where we are still unfinished. Yet “the LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy” (Psalm 103:8).

This does not mean God is indifferent toward sin. He calls us to repentance, holiness, obedience, and faith (Acts 17:30; Romans 6:1–2; Hebrews 12:14). But His correction is not the rejection of His children. “For whom the LORD loves He chastens” (Hebrews 12:6). The hand that corrects is still the hand that loves.

Sometimes God has to break our pride before He can build our character. Sometimes He has to empty our hands before He can fill them. Sometimes He allows us to discover that our strength is insufficient so that we will learn to depend upon His strength. Paul learned this when Christ told him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

The Potter knows what He is doing.

THE POTTER IS FORMING CHRIST IN US

The goal is not simply to make us better people. God is doing something deeper. He is forming Christ in us.

Paul said, “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). He also said that God has predestined His people “to be conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29). The Potter is shaping the vessel until the character of Jesus begins to show through it.

That is why Paul could say, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels” (2 Corinthians 4:7). We are the vessels. Christ is the treasure.

There is nothing impressive about clay by itself. It is common, fragile, and easily broken. But put that clay into the hands of a master potter, and something beautiful can emerge. So it is with us. “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God” (2 Corinthians 3:5).

The glory belongs to the Potter.

Maybe that is why God sometimes allows us to remain conscious of our weakness. We want to be strong enough that we no longer need Him. God wants us to become so dependent upon Him that His strength becomes visible through us. “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Corinthians 12:9). “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).

The vessel does not receive glory because of the clay.

The vessel displays the glory of the One who formed it.

And then there is something even more wonderful. The Potter Himself came into the world He had made. “The Word became flesh” (John 1:14). The Creator entered His creation. Jesus took upon Himself our humanity, bore our sins on the cross, and “by His stripes we are healed” (1 Peter 2:24; Isaiah 53:5). The hands that formed the world were stretched out upon Calvary. The hands that could have called “more than twelve legions of angels” (Matthew 26:53) were pierced for us.

What kind of Potter does that?

A Potter who loves His clay.

YIELD TO THE POTTER

The greatest question is not whether the Potter has power. Romans 9 settles that: “Does not the potter have power over the clay?” (Romans 9:21). The question for us is whether we will yield ourselves to His hands.

God does not force us into fellowship with Him. He calls us. He draws us. He commands us to repent and believe (John 6:44; Mark 1:15; Acts 2:38). He invites us to come to Christ and find rest for our souls (Matthew 11:28–29). His desire is not that we perish, but that we turn to Him and live (Ezekiel 18:23; 2 Peter 3:9).

So let the Potter work.

If He is pressing you, trust Him.

If He is reshaping you, trust Him.

If He is breaking something in you that needs to be broken, trust Him.

If He is teaching you patience, trust Him.

If He is making you wait, trust Him.

If He is leading you somewhere you do not understand, trust Him.

The clay does not need to understand the wheel. It needs to remain in the Potter’s hands.

And perhaps that is the word somebody needs today: you are not finished yet.

The Potter is still working.

The hands that hold you are scarred hands. The hands that shape you are loving hands. The hands that correct you are faithful hands. And the hands that were pierced for you will never abandon you.

“Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).

You are clay.

He is the Potter.

Stay in His hands.

BDD