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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.
We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed.
2 Corinthians 4:7-8a (NLT)
This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Have you ever seen a clay jar?
We often see these and immediately think about how they might be used without considering how they reached the place of usability.
You see, each jar began as a big formless lump of clay. In and of itself, that lump of clay wasn’t good for much of anything. There wasn’t much it could be used for.
This all changed when that clay was placed in the hands of a skilled potter. Using a potter’s wheel, the potter knows just the right way to use their hands to shape the once formless clay into something functional like a jar that could be filled with substances once allowed to dry and harden.
Once the jar could be used, it’s not as if it was indestructible. It was just hardened clay after all, much thinner once shaped. Any powerful hit by a hard object or a drop on the ground would break the pot, rendering it unusable.
Why all this discussion about clay jars?
Because as we see, the Paul uses the clay objects as spiritual illustrations in his words to the Corinthian church. Over the next four days, we are going to look closely at the major points made by the Apostle. Look at today’s verses:
We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.
We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. 2 Corinthians 4:7-8a (NLT)
In the verses preceding the ones for today, Paul proclaimed how God had placed the light of Christ within their hearts so they might possess the knowledge of God, a knowledge of God used by the Holy Spirit to lead and guide the Christian believer. There is no greater gift God has placed within those who have placed their faith in Him than this. Paul referred to it as a “great treasure”.
But note how he describes himself and other Jesus followers like him. He saw himself and other Christians as “fragile clay jars”, delicate vessels carrying highly valuable, God-granted contents. If there was any power held by Christians, it was the power God placed within them. It was never of their own doing. This was the point Paul wanted to drive home.
Go back to the analogy of the lump of clay again and now apply it to any person who chooses to follow God and accept salvation through His Son Jesus. Without the Lord, a person isn’t spiritually useful but when they humbly commit themselves to the hands of the Master Potter, He forms them into something He can use for His glory, something He can fill with His Spirit and knowledge. The scriptures affirm God’s work as a Potter in several places. Look at the following excerpts:
Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand. Isaiah 64:8
He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in My hand, Israel.” Jeremiah 18:6
We are clay in the hands of God, our great Potter who is ever molding and shaping us to be what He wants to do what He wants. He not only makes us employable for His purposes but He wills us with His Spirit and knowledge, the special treasure held within our “clay jars”. And with God as our Maker, we know we have been made with special features like being able to withstand the pressures of life, troubles that might press in on us but never crush us because God won’t allow it. He keeps His formed vessels strong so they can be of use to Him.
Yes, we are fragile clay jars, everyone of us, but we are specially formed to be who we are by the greatest Potter ever, a Potter who creates all things perfectly and then protects His creations from damage and hard.
Tomorrow, we’ll see another amazing quality we gain when we allow ourselves, the fragile clay that we are, to be formed and shaped by the Master Potter.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
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