Daily Devotional

A Ministry of the Kerwin Baptist Church

May 23, 2018

by Pastor Hawtree

I AM PERSUADED THAT HE IS ABLE:

TO BE THE POTTER

Isaiah 64:8
8 But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all
are the work of thy hand.

You know, for anything to work right, those involved need to understand the person in
charge, their position, and their purpose. Things are not going to be productive if the
wrong people try to assume authority. Things will not work correctly if people do not
know what they are supposed to do, or why they are supposed to do it. God takes care
of all questions in this passage.

“Thou art our Father”, “Thou our Potter”

This is very clear. God is the one in authority. He is “Father”, which means that He
created. He is “Potter”, which means that He controls. God made us, so God has the
right and responsibility to mold us. Things do not go well if we decide, for any reason,
that we should be in charge. Think about it. We would never be molded into anything
useful because we would not put ourselves through difficulty. We need to just get
comfortable with the fact that God is the Potter. He is the expert. The Potter does not
explain things to the clay. He is not required to defend every decision or change he
makes.

“We are the clay”

The only job of the clay is to simply submit to what the Potter is doing. To be pliable is
the main requirement. We are to accept what the Potter is doing to us in the molding
process.

“We are all the work of Thy hand”
The purpose in this whole thing we call life is to be what God wants us to be. We will go
no further in our spiritual life till we understand that. It is not important what we think we
should be, or what we want to be. We are all a “work” in God’s hands. He is
accomplishing a purpose. He is building a work. He is forming a vessel. God wants us
to be a useful vessel, and He wants us to useful in accomplishing His perfect will.
Before we look further into this passage, we will get nowhere until we get this all straight
and understood. God is in charge. We are not. God is creating a “work”. We are the
“work” He is creating. Whatever vessel God makes us into should be used according to
His purpose.
If you think about it, we have the easiest job in this process. He does all the work. He
does all the forming. He turns the wheel. He heats the kiln. When it is all done, we get to
be filled and used. God is able to be the Potter, and we are not!