Then the LORD gave me this message: “O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand. Jeremiah 18:5-6 NLT
I’m not going to ask today if you agree with what God is allowing or doing in your life right now, but I do want to ask this question, will you give Him permission to do it? A better question might be, does He have the right to do it?
My son made a sand castle once at the beach. I thought he did a super job with it. People would pass it by as they walked the beach and comment how good it was. He wasn’t happy with it, so he smashed it and started over. I didn’t stop him. It was his sand castle.
God made you. He shaped your life. He’s been in control of every moment of your life. He hasn’t caused all the bad things that have happened to you. Many of those happened simply because we live in a messed up world, but He certainly had to allow them and will choose to use them for an ultimate good if you allow Him to do so. He has a plan for your life. He knows what He wants you to look like in the end. The question of this post is: Doesn’t He have a right to do with His creation as He chooses?
If you aren’t happy with your life right now, I want to encourage you to talk with your Creator. Tell Him your concerns. Ask Him for changes that line up with His desires for your life. He may allow them but, always keep in mind, if God says “No”, the ultimate role of a follower of Christ is to accept His will for your life. He made you and has a right to shape what He made.
If you could ask God to change one are of your life, what would it be?
(I will conclude this series next Monday through Friday.)
"He hasn’t caused all the bad things that have happened to you. …but He certainly had to allow them and will choose to use them for an ultimate good if you allow Him to do so." Thank you for that. It's one of the pieces I've been missing from my puzzle. I've been blaming God for a lot of things lately – perhaps they haven't all been his fault & I should get over it and let Him work…
Thanks Amy! I suspect He's at work in ways you and I could never imagine!
@Amy, Ron's right. For years I would look at God and say "What? Am I not trying, don't I go to church and don't I pray? Don't I ask and don't I thank You for the good things you do? Am I not faithful to my wife and don't I protect and provide for my family? Well, if that's the case then why don't You make it just a little less of a struggle? Why don't you have my wife be more of a wife to me?"…and so on. Through all of the pain that is my marriage at the moment, He's shown me that, although most of that was true, I really wasn't at the place in my maturity and in my walk and in my trust of Him that He needed me to be. He's done a fantastic work in my life over this last year for which I am immensely grateful.
To be totally honest, I really kind of wish we would move on to some more positive things in my life, but instead of always whining about them I cry out in some of those same prayers, but with a more mature spirit and with a sense of trust and faithfulness that I did not have before. I am excited to see what He has in store, but am impatient to see it 🙂
Thanks Jon and Amy!