This month we are looking at the word jar. It is three little letters filled with much depth (pun intended) as we look at scriptural usage of this word. It is so amazing how we experience the height, width, depth and length of God’s love through His living Word that speaks to us from the pages. Verses and parables of life application that we can feed off just one word, such as jar, when we posture our hearts to receive. My prayer is that you are ministered to and encouraged today about how God desires to manifest His extraordinary power in us according to...
2 Corinthians 4:7
Now we have this treasure in clay jars, so that this extraordinary power may be from God and not from us.
If you feel weak today that’s okay, God is about to show His strength within you. Do you feel like you have been experiencing a pressing? That's good, God is molding you into a jar capable of holding His power! You may wonder, Thelma, why do you sound excited about this? It’s because I am! My friend, I have experienced the hand of God press down on me so hard, I died; I died to myself, I died to my ways, I died to my ideas and what was left was a slab of dust that came to life with the water of the Word.
God’s truth is transforming, and we each must allow ourselves time to sit in the presence of God letting His Word saturate us and bring us to TRUE LIFE!!! You see, that is why I am so excited! God’s Word can make these dry dusty bones come to life with vigor, strength and courage to be all that God has called us to be for a lost and dying world. It isn’t what we can do, it is God’s power in us, working to will His good pleasure in us. The Water of Life must rework this mound of dirt as a vessel useful for the Kingdom. Now, don’t be offended, the Word says we were made from dust and to dust we will return! This earthly frame is just a container (a jar) for the living God to dwell in.
All throughout the Bible we read stories that God uses to help us understand God’s ways. His ways are not hidden, we just have to seek them out. A verse that explains this talks about how it is the glory of God to conceal a matter and the glory of kings to search it out. Therefore, we are always drawn to God; to seek Him, to find Him and find the answers for our lives.
Jeremiah 18:1-4
The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will make you hear My words.” Then I went down to the potter’s house, and saw that he was working at the wheel. But the vessel that he was making from clay was spoiled by the potter’s hand; so he made it over, reworking it and making it into another pot that seemed good to him.
I was reading that scripture and had the thought “how does the vessel, become flawed, while it is IN the potter’s hand? The clay was in the potter’s hand being shaped, molded, and pressed; in his hands, under his control and the clay became flawed.” This reminds me so much of how humanity became flawed while under God’s control. This may be too controversial and maybe for some this is a place of offense that needs to be dealt with, but God is in control of all things, even the crushing in our lives that serve as moments, with God’s permission, to work all things to His good pleasure according to Philippians 2:13.
From a very young age, I felt called to be in the caring profession. I would say I wanted to be a baby doctor when I didn’t know the word pediatrician. At some point, I felt called to be a missionary, and sensed nursing would best fit as an essential hands and feet ministry equipping to serve somewhere in the bush of Africa. I went to Africa for 2 glorious months in 1998 shortly before being accepted into the nursing program. I used to say “I could die now” as it had been one of the most fulfilling, yet difficult, life changing events ever in my life. I was pretty sure I would go overseas to serve as a missionary. I was active in church as a youth. I was at every prayer meeting, sang in the choir, was on the worship team and I really wanted to serve God. I was in the Potter’s hand. But little by little, as life, people and experiences chipped away at me, I became broken and marred in the Potter’s hand. I was fragile and breaking into pieces. It affected important decisions including marriage, family and work. The Lord kept pressing me, kept holding me and picking up the pieces. Some pieces were dry from where my soul had become offended and angry at God. Some other pieces were sharp and I am sure I would have cut the Potter with my sharp accusation and blame directed at Him for why my life, family and relationships were the way they were. The only thing that gave me hope was that the foundation that I had was built on God.
David says in Psalm 22:10 that he was cast upon God from his birth saying that from his mother’s womb, God was his God. This is my story; I was dedicated to the Lord as a baby and my parents were actively involved in our church as well. Even still, my life endured chaos, heartbreak and death. To the glory of God alone, I am still standing!!! This is the process of a jar being formed, a clay vessel useful for the Potter. That slab of dirt is thrown so hard on the wheel it literally sticks and it cannot be removed even if the top part breaks apart - you would have to scrape it off. There are so many tools that the potter has at his disposal.
I believe that God is so merciful and kind, that even when our foundation is not on Him, He can use a tool to scrap that foundation and build you from the foundation up. I have seen both; a foundation left to form a new vessel and the foundation being scraped off and a new foundation laid to form a new vessel. He took His time to reshape me and form me and my jar began to overflow with Living Water. Then I was baptized afresh in the Holy Ghost. He began to wash me with His Word as I sat in His presence for hours on end being saturated as His Love undid every lie that I had believed. Where are you in this process of becoming that jar that contains the extraordinary power of God? God cannot leave you in the same way He found you. Not because you are not good enough, but because He is good! God is dynamic, marked by continuous and productive activity and change.
Now before you think I am talking heresy, to us God is dynamic because our mortal finite existence could never capture His essence. I love when the Word talks about the manifold wisdom of God, you get the idea of layer after layer, pulled back to reveal yet more and more of our DYNAMIC GOD! This is how it is with His power coming to fill us…WE MUST CHANGE in relation to His power moving, living and activating us!
In John chapter 2 we see that Mary told the servants at the wedding in Cana to fill the (jars) with water. It was this place where the miracle happened; water turned into wine. Our earthly container needs to be filled with the Living water so that the power of Holy Spirit will pour forth in our everyday life, work, and family. The key point is what Mary emphasized, “do whatever He tells you.” I can only imagine the servants filling these jars with water and wondering what this had to do with wine. Their obedience provided an opportunity for the power of God to be made manifest as wine poured forth. I believe this is a good demonstration of how our lives equally need to be filled with the true Living Water. Water makes dirt more malleable to be shaped into what the Potter wants it to be. You may think, what a painful process this is, Thelma. I want to encourage you my friend, it is so worth it.
Action steps:
The obedience of our lives in surrender to Jesus is so vital to God’s power being made alive us. We must be in His hands so that He can form us as jars to contain His glory, power, and love as we see in Isaiah 64:8 where Isaiah confesses “O LORD, you are our Father; We are the clay, and You our Potter, and we all are the work of Your hand.”
Step 1: Confess to God where you have denied Him access to “press and shape” you into a vessel for His purposes.
Step 2: Confess to God where you have blamed Him for things you are going through or things that you went through and didn’t understand.
Step 3: Confess to God that you are tired of resisting His hand in your life and ask God to begin the process of picking up the broken pieces and to rebuild you. Do you need a new foundation? Ask Him to lay a new one. Are you a prodigal or have you been away from relationship and intimacy with Him? Ask Him to drench You with His Living Water to soften your stony heart.
Through this process, I have learned that I can trust Him All the time and in every circumstance. He is the Potter, and I am His jar where He has placed His treasured Holy Spirit full of power for the glory of His name!
What about Africa? It was His mercy that I did not go to Africa. I understand now. At the time, I felt like a jar of clay being broken to pieces and pressed. I am so grateful to God. To be honest, I would not have been ready to live in Africa. I was immature and had so many wounds and I blamed God so easily when things went bad. I potentially could have walked away from Him from the offense I carried. I needed healing. I needed spiritual maturity. His timing is perfect, His plan is what I needed. Trust His process in your life.
Let's pray together:
Father, I want to be more like Jesus. I want to be made in the image and likeness of
Your Son, going from glory to glory and strength to strength. I want to experience the power of the living God living and reigning in my life, at all times and in all things. Drench me in Your Living Water so that I am malleable in Your hand as you shape and mold my life.
In Jesus' name, Amen.