Daily devotional, Feb 19, 2024 Play-doh

"But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter;we are all the work of your hand." 
Isaiah 64:8

Play-dough will always be fun and fascinating. Most, if not all kids I have encountered love it. Even a former colleague had canisters of it in her table as part of her “therapy,” following a really bad break-up. She said she was advised to make something using her hands, and all she could think of was clay. And so she bought cans of it, and kept her mind and hands busy so she would not focus much on her crushed heart.

Apart from heartbreak, sinfulness can utterly crush our hearts into broken little pieces. When we come to terms with how far we have distanced ourselves from God, we will realize that we can never experience peace until we hand our hearts back to the one who molded us.

"Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature."
Genesis 2:7

And since the Lord does not despise a contrite heart, He reaches out to us with a loving embrace eager to re-mold us back to how He designed us to be. This is the exact message of God to the Prophet Jeremiah, as He reminded Him and His people that He is sovereign and that He is merciful and just:

“Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do. Then the word of the Lord came to me: “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 18:2-6

We are much like the uncooperative clay in the Potter’s hand, as mentioned in the bible passage above. But once we come to our senses and realize that we have disobeyed the Lord, and have become sinful we give the Lord the opportunity to mold us to whom He wants us to be. Once we admit that we have turned into a stubborn and muddied clay, and decide to return to Him, He can work on us again and keep us from cracking or breaking apart.

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Ephesians 2:10

The Apostle Paul reminds us that we are like clay vessels. He said we will always have a choice to be used for the Lord’s good works and that we can harness our full potential as followers of Jesus Christ:

"Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work." 
2 Timothy 2:20-21

So how do we ask God to repurpose us? Well the first step is to admit to our spiritual bankruptcy. We have to confess our sins to Him and repent. We have to genuinely regret that we lived away from His light and train ourselves to walk in His ways by following His commands and living in Christ-likeness. 

We have to make a conscious effort to obey God’s commands and live our faith. We can do this by praying to the Lord every single day, dedicating time to praise and worship Him, thanking Him for all that He has done for us. We also should tell Him about everything that happens to us and not just plead for favors. We have to earmark time to read and study His words, by ourselves and with other people, and worship Him at least once a week with other believers.

We have to realize that we cannot do it alone, and that we cannot depend on our own strength to go through this life — because in reality, we cannot. That would be like expecting an uprooted plant to survive without soil. 

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

2 Corinthians 5:17

Thank you for reading through our devotional today. I invite you to ponder on Jeremiah 18:1-10 and Romans 9:11-24 to dig deeper on today’s topic.

Reflection Question:  Do you need God to remold your life?

Conversation with the Lord: Heavenly Father, thank you for always being willing to work on me so that I could live Your purpose for my life. Pardon my sins, and cleanse me, so that You could use me for Your good works. Amen.