O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.
– Jeremiah 18:6
This is beautiful imagery that the book of Jeremiah gives us of our lives as God’s people being like clay, in the hands of God, the master Potter, God saying to his people in the Old Testament, the people of Israel, I want to form you and fashion you into something beautiful and valuable, an instrument, a treasure that reflects my glory and goodness and wisdom and love. If you would just be like clay in the hands of the potter and let me do all the good things that I desire to do in your life, for your life. And the people of God were saying, no, they were resisting God’s good, gracious, loving, wise hand in their lives.
Jeremiah 18:6 reminds us God uses every circumstance to mold us into His image.
So let’s take this imagery and see ourselves today this way. God is the perfect Potter. He knows what is best for our lives today. He’s all wise. He is all good. He is working today for our good. Whether you’re walking through good times or hard times. Every circumstance that you’re walking through is God molding you more into his image… Into who he has created you to be.
So be malleable today. Be moldable today before God and every day to say, God, my life is yours. It’s in your hands. Do whatever you desire to do in me through me. Use me as an instrument that’s for noble purposes, for your glory. And do whatever is needed to purify me, sanctify me, and mold me more into the image of Jesus today. Oh God, that’s our prayer. We praise you as our Potter. God. We want to be molded by you, not by this world, not by ourselves.
Jeremiah 18:6 reminds us not to resist God’s work in our lives.
God, we want to be who you have created us to be. We want to thrive in all the ways you’ve created us to thrive. So God, help us not to push back on your purifying, sanctifying, loving wise work as our Potter in our lives. We are clay. And God, we praise you for your love for us, your care for us, for your wisdom. So we say we trust you today. Help us to trust you completely.
Help us to be humble before you, to receive all the ways you are molding us today into your image through whatever we’re walking through. Make us more like Jesus today. Mold us more into his image today than we were yesterday.
Prayer for the Jewish People
And we pray and oh God, as we see this word to the house of Israel in the Old Testament, we pray for Jewish men and women and children spread all around the world today, including in the cities where we live.
God, we pray for the spread of the good news of Jesus and his life and death and resurrection, the truth about Jesus to spread to the house of Israel in this sense all over the world today, we pray for the salvation of Jewish men and women and children, friends of ours, neighbors of ours, and Jewish men and women and children spread among all the nations. God, may they see your love for them in Jesus and humble themselves and receive your salvation as clay in your hand as the potter. We pray all of this in light of your Word in Jeremiah 18:6 to you as the potter from us, as the clay. Help us to see our lives this way today. In Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
