From Ben – 13 June 2021
It was a few years ago when one of our congregation members came to arrange flowers in the front of the church. She brought with her a clay pot to use as a vase for the flowers. Unfortunately, the pot fell and broke. I asked her if I could keep the broken and cracked pot, which I now have in my office. The reason I keep the cracked pot is to remind me not to think too highly of myself or take any pride to myself, because that is what the bible calls me.
2 Cor 4:7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
The apostle Paul goes on to say that, despite the fact that we are so ordinary and common, God has placed in us a great treasure, the Lord Jesus Christ, thus giving us a value that is incalculable.
This is not the only place that the bible uses this idea of us being common pottery. In Rom 9:21 we are likened to clay in the Potter’s hand. It is humbling to remember that God made us from the clay, and we will one day return to dust. Yet in Christ and through His grace, He uses us as He sees fit. Some pots are used for important and highly visible purposes, yet other pots are just plain and kept out of sight, seldom used and spend most of their lives hidden.
I am asking God to give me the grace to be His clay pot, through cracked and common, and to accept the role and work He has set out for me. The Potter has the right to use the pot as He sees fit.
Rom 9:21 Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?