2Co 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
As I grow in my faith two things help me- 1. the bible which teaches me truth, and 2. the Spirit who reveals himself and shows me who I am. Both of these are like mirrors...revealing what God wants and then showing me where I am. When I read the word I see God's goal for me, and then he reveals me to me...and I see how far I am from the mark. When the Holy Spirit works in my heart I hear from him, and what he wants for me....and I'm convicted and must deal with the me that is and the me that should be. Now, I must say that my goal is not to change me, it's to let the word of God and his Spirit do that. What I must do is be available for him to work. I won't be changed unless I'm willing.....and my will and flesh are the big enemies of what God wants to do in me. The more time I spend with God in his word, listening to the Spirit speak to my heart, the more I see my own reflection in contrast to what God wants me to be, the more I see my need for him to make me what I should be.
Years ago I was in Mexico with a missionary. He took me to a potter's house. This potter made pots the way they did in ancient Israel. We watched him work on a vase. It was beautiful. He was almost done, and then with a quick movement he smashed the vase into a pile of clay again. I asked the missionary why he had done that...ruined that beautiful vase. He asked the potter my question and got back a one word reply, "lumps". If he had fired that vase with the lumps in the vase and not worked them out it would have broken in the fire. He had to get the lumps out.
And that's what I'm working on this morning....lumps. As the Spirit and the word reveal me to me, I see lumps....and the blow to smash me into a pile of clay again so he can refine me is painful, but the goal will be glorious....
2Ti 2:21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.
2 comments:
A lump of clay that is in the process of transformation of being made into a beautiful vase has to go through many different stages; and perhaps the earlier stages may not be very beautiful or attractive, but the Potter knows what He is about, and the lump of clay must be content to be just as He would have it, and not as it would like to be itself. You are that lump of clay, and your only concern should be to let the Potter have His own way with you. He will surely make a vessel out of you for His honor “sanctified & meet for the Master’s use, and fitted to every good work.”
Smith, H. W., & Dieter, M. E. (1997). The Christian's secret of a holy life : The unpublished personal writings of Hannah Whitall Smith
“The clay is not attractive in itself, but when the hands of the potter touch it, and the thought of the potter is brought to bear upon it, and the plan of the potter is worked out in it and through it, then there is a real transformation.”
—J. Wilbur Chapman1
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