In God’s Hands

Before I begin this article I want to wish you all a year filled with God’s blessing and grace.  May He overwhelm you with His love and leave you breathless as you wonder and meditate on WHO HE IS AND ALL THAT HE HAS DONE FOR YOU!  May He fill your hearts with peace and your life with joy as you begin your journey of 2010 with Him.

“You’re in Good Hands with Allstate.”  I imagine we’ve all heard that at one time or another.  I don’t know about you but I wouldn’t feel secure if my life was only in the goods hands of Allstate.  It is in knowing that I am in God’s  Hands that I am safe and secure.

Many of you know the passage from Isaiah 64:8 - “Yet, O Lord, you are our Father.  We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.”    If we are not in God’s hands then it is someone else who is shaping and molding our lives; it is someone else who has the power and control over our lives.   It is someone else who does not have your best interest in mind.  So…who has control over you….who is making you and influencing your thoughts and the decisions that you make?   Is it God or is it ???

The Potter’s Field was a place where all the shattered vessels were thrown into a garbage dump outside the city.  This field represents the world….a place where broken lives are thrown away.  It’s typical of the world we live in…when we are no longer of no use to the world….it throws you away.  Ever been dumped because you are no longer of value or of use to someone?  Me too!

Oh, but God is the Master Potter.  He who has a purpose for all those broken and shattered vessels, walks over to the garbage dump to take a look.  And, what He sees is not the brokenness or the shattered pieces laying scattered all over the place, but the beauty of a life that can be restored and put back together as it lays itself down ever so trustingly in His hands.  He says to that broken piece you  may be broken and shattered but MY child I love you and I have a purpose for you….come and place yourself in the care of My Hands and allow Me to make you something beautiful. As you allow Him to lift  you out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire (Psalm 40:2)….safely you go, though broken and shattered into the Potter’s Hands.  God is the Master Potter and we are like a lump of clay in Hands. 

A potter will work and shape the clay molding it and changing it until He has just the perfect piece all the while never letting go of His clay.  Sometimes the molding process can be intense and even painful as we experience the refining fire of God’s loving hands…ouch it hurts but those hands never leave us in fire alone.   The potter’s hand never comes off the piece that He is working on.  He knows exactly how much heat and molding we need, how much pressure to apply.   No two lumps of clay are alike.  We are all uniquely made and God knows us intimately.  He knows our name, our color, how many hairs on our head, our shapes, our personalities and purpose.   It is by placing yourself willingly “In God’s Hands” that you will come forth as gold.  God’s great love for you will never prevent Him from turning up the heat if need be or giving you a little more pounding or kneading if that’s what it takes to restore you and bring new life into you.  He knows the depth of your broken and your shattered life and just how much molding you need to be restored.  He won’t stop until you, that hard piece of clay, breaks in His hand and allows Him to form you into the beautiful vessel He designed you to be before you were ever born. 

So, as we begin this New Year where do you find yourself?  Are you in God’s Hands?  If you’re not, then guess whose hands you’re in.   If you find yourself out of the safety of God’s tender grip, are you ready to run with all you got into the hands that are open and ready to hold you?   Are you ready to climb into the hands of your Maker?  Are you ready to let Him heal those hurts, to bring sweetness to a life that was was shattered, and beauty to a life that was broken?  If you are willing, God is able. 

Jeremiah 18:4 - “But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot; shaping it as seemed best to him.”

Do you trust God enough to allow Him to shape you as He sees best?