Remaking the Vessel
Hello Ascend family! My hope is that as you read this, you will be encouraged and built up in your faith. I am so thankful for the opportunity to be a part of your day and honored that the Lord has allowed us to spend just a few minutes together. Let’s get into the scripture.
Jeremiah 18:3-4 “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.”
The people of God, in the Old and New Testament, are referred to as vessels. This is the beginning point we need to grab on to. We are vessels. One thing I want to note is that a vessel and a container are not the same thing. Containers are meant to seal and store; vessels are meant to fill and pour. You are a vessel. The question I want to ask is not “What are you?” The real question at hand is “What are you pouring out?” A vessel is designed to pour and it will always do just that. Even when the vessel has been set in a place it was not designed for or filled with a substance it was not supposed to contain. It doesn’t matter. A vessel is a vessel.
Now let’s apply what we are seeing here. We must be careful what we are allowing to fill us up. If we look to sources that don’t understand who or what we are, we will never be all we were meant to be. A vessel will pour out whatever has been put into it. What we so often experience in life are vessels all around us that are pouring out from a place that they were never intended to be filled from. We experience them in the anger filled family member that lashes out with cutting words or physical harm, the friend that is ruled by the power of alcohol or drugs, or the sibling that continues to have sexual partner after sexual partner in the hopes that someone will love them. They are vessels looking to be filled, but are being filled by things that can never satisfy the purpose and intent they were created with. Perhaps this sounds all too familiar. Perhaps you see places in your life that these same tendencies are wreaking havoc all around you. You see broken friendships, family members that have become estranged and distant, a marriage grown cold, an addiction that you just can’t seem to be rid of, or an anger that comes out of you
that you can’t seem to keep under control.
A vessel is a vessel. We can’t change it. We will be filled. Even if we have to search high and low, we will find a source to fill us. As we are filled, we will pour out, no matter what has been taken in. When we pour from a broken place people pay the price. Those people can be our loved ones, our children, strangers at Wal-Mart, or fellow believers. However, the greatest casualty that is seen when we pour from a broken vessel is ourselves. We pay the highest price for taking in from sources we were never meant to take in from. For example, if we put something very cold into a glass container and then allow that cold to fully engulf the container; then we quickly add boiling water to the container, the glass will shatter. Why? It’s not that the container was not able to be filled. It was just simply filled the wrong way, without care or caution. What may seem like no big deal at the time can potentially have catastrophic consequences. If we fail to properly protect what is poured into us, the damage that can be done to us and those around us can be far greater than we ever expected. What are you taking in? What are you pouring out?
The next thing I want look at is that a vessel is nothing more than a jar made with purpose. Purpose has been determined by the creator of the vessel. The vessel will exist with its purpose always. You can put the vessel in places it wasn’t made for, use if for things that go beyond its design. That will never change the intention of the hands that fashioned it when it was created. You, my friend, have been created with purpose. To quote the popular Marvel Character Loki, “I am burdened with glorious purpose.” You have been made with glorious purpose! You are no accident. You are not the hapless result of a one night stand, you are not the unwanted pregnancy, you are not the product of a mistake, mishap or failure. You have been fashioned by the hands of the potter. You are the product of the molding and making hands of God.
We all have purpose. It doesn’t matter where we came from, who our parents are, what our economic status is, what color our skin is, or what level of education we have received. None of it matters because none of it can change the design of the potter’s hand. YOU HAVE PURPOSE! Allow the potter to do His work. Allow Him to show you and use you in the purpose He created you with. You will never feel more satisfied in your life than the moments you are being used to pour out in the way you were designed to. It’s never too late. The vessel never looses its purpose because it was used incorrectly or damaged. No, it simply requires the master to remove it from the wrong situation and put it where it was meant to be. It’s not over till it’s over. Call out to the Potter and let Him move you to the place that you were destined to be.
Lastly, the scripture in Jeremiah says that as the potter was shaping the clay it became spoiled in his hands. You may have experienced somethings or done somethings that you feel disqualifies you from being made by the potter. Perhaps you feel you went too far, stayed too long, messed up too bad and now you’re a spoiled vessel. I have good news today! You are not beyond the saving, creative hands of the potter. The prophet Jeremiah was the one that said it was spoiled, not the potter. Jeremiah didn’t know the mind of the potter. Jeremiah didn’t know the skill of the craftsman. What someone else has said disqualifies you is not the end of the story. No one but the potter gets to determine when a piece of clay is unusable. They may be a great person of God. After all, Jeremiah was a prophet. Even a great person of God does not possess the power to throw out a vessel that’s still on the wheel. If you feel you have some spoiled areas in your life, it’s ok. Allow the potters hand to refashion you. God accounted for all your limitations, imperfections, and mistakes when he chose to put you on the wheel. Let God do what only He can do. Let’s give Him permission to take what we think disqualifies us and make us into a vessel that are divinely unique. Those areas you are worried about are what God needed to make you a fully unique vessel. Don’t believe me? Ask David, Moses, Abraham, Jacob, Paul, Peter, Rahab, Ruth......
The Bible is full of vessels that the world would have thrown out, but God chose them for His divine purpose.
Be encouraged today! Be the vessel that God uniquely designed and then purposefully pour out the blessings He has poured in.
Keep Ascending, TJ Oakley