Are you Clay or Rock?
Today, I want to take a moment and celebrate those who have made or are just now beginning to make recovery a way of life. Walking a new walk, living a new life. We see how God has/will heal your body, your mind, your spirit, and your life. If drugs and alcohol are a part of your past; they are not a part of you now, they are not part of your future. Today, you are clean and sober… clean, sober, and free. We see you becoming strong one moment at a time, one thought at a time, one action at a time. We see you learning how to live. We see a new creation unfolding right in front of us. Congratulations! You are loved!
The apostle Paul reinforces this by telling us in 2 Corinthians 5:17-19
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
I am a Potter
(Yes, really)
And each time I sit at the wheel I am reminded that God has a design for our lives. Jeremiah 18:4-6 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: Jer 18:2 “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you, my message.” Jer 18:3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. Jer 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. Jer 18:5 Then the word of the LORD came to me: Jer 18:6 “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?” declares the LORD. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. & Romans 9:20-21 Ro 9:20 But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ ” 9:21 Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?
In my personal recovery journey from the slavery of alcohol and prescription drugs, I began to see that I had choices the biggest choice was rock or clay. The choice is ours… You can be formed, shaped, and molded, or as the rock you can be blown up, chiseled and hammered. We can choose to be rock or clay in the hands of God. God is ready to work within us and move among us in new ways… transforming our lives. For clay to be transformed, used, formed, or shaped it must first be prepared. To prepare the clay It is wedged, worked, and then formed.
A sober reality: “We must make major adjustments in our lives to join God in what he is doing.” Joining God: My first step was/is Centering my life; this requires that I realize that it is NOT about me… It is about the potter. I have come to understand God’s goal is not our comfort – it is our development. I’ve found that it helps if I remember that I am not in charge… God is… He is more interested in the development of my character and the cultivation of the qualities that will form me. Isa 57:18-19. “I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will guide him and restore comfort to him, 19 creating praise on the lips of the mourners in Israel. Peace, peace, to those far and near,” says the LORD. “And I will heal them.”
In these verses, God says:
If you have been hurt: I want to heal you.
If you’re confused: I want to lead you
If you have ever felt helpless: I want to help you change that
If you have ever felt that no one understands: I want to comfort you.
If you feel anxious and worried: I want to offer you peace.
To be formed and shaped into what you were created to be you must:
Being formed by God’s hand is a Journey.
Molded, formed in the master's hands, and peace will come. Let go and allow God to form you, make you, mold you…HEAL YOU and give you peace!!!
I NEED TO START OVER
Hear me, my Father, as I pray, Hear the beat of my heart, the pulse of my spirit, the words spoken, and the words unspoken. Hear me and help me to sort out my life, seeing the good and the evil with clearer eyes. Help me to sort out my loves, clinging harder to that which is creative and letting go of that which pulls me down. Please help me to acknowledge my sins and admit my evil. But help me also to accept your forgiveness, so that I do not go about beating my breast and bemoaning my failure. Help me to rise above that perverted kind of pride that causes me to regard my sins as remarkable and myself as unusual. My faults, I know when I am honest, are pretty much the same old tired sins people have always committed. I have surrendered to lust and called it love. I have practiced petty selfishness and called it principle. I have acted with smug bigotry and called it courage. I need to start over… TODAY.. May you give me the strength and courage to start over… from Kenneth Phifer: “A Book of Uncommon Prayer”
Start today: rock or clay, it’s your choice!
Until next time
Pastor Mike
