Devotional Song: Go to this link … Today in my devotional journal entry, please take the time to watch/listen to a poignant song sung by Sara Groves, “It’s Going To Be Alright”, reminding us all that God’s timing may be tough at times; but when we let Him doing His work in His timing, it’s gonna be alright!
Highlight Study passages found in Isaiah 30: 18 and 64: 8 [NLT] …
30: 18 But the LORD still waits for you to come to him so he can show you his love and compassion. For the LORD is a faithful God. Blessed are those who wait for him to help them. …
64: 8 And yet, O LORD, You are our Father. We are the clay, and You are the potter. We all are formed by Your hand.
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Reference Passage #1: Romans 9: 21-23 [We are clay in the Potter’s hands.] … [NLT] …
21 When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into? 22 In the same way, even though God has the right to show His anger and His power, He is very patient with those on whom His anger falls, who are destined for destruction. 23 He does this to make the riches of His glory shine even brighter on those to whom He shows mercy, who were prepared in advance for glory.
Reference Passage #2: 1st Peter 5: 7 [God’s timing is best; but we have to be willing to cast our cares on the One Who cares for us.] … [NLT] …
7 Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about what happens to you.
My Journal for Today: Have you ever been in a place in your life when God seemed like such a slow poke? Some times when we so want something to happen right now, God’s timing, even though we know in our heads is perfect, we just so want for Him to do His thing more quickly.
Aw common, admit it, … you’ve been there, haven’t you?
This morning, in his devotional entry, Os Hillman reminded me that God has a track record in HIS-story of taking a lot of human time to shape the lives of those He’s going to use. Hillman writes …
• ” Have you ever noticed that God is not in a hurry? It took 40 years for Moses to receive his commission to lead the people out of Egypt. It took 17 years of preparation before Joseph was delivered from slavery and imprisonment. It took 20 years before Jacob was released from Laban's control. Abraham and Sarah were in their old age when they finally received the son of promise, Isaac. So why isn't God in a hurry?”
I found out this Godly “M.O.” very personally; … because God let me languish in my selfishness and habitual sexual sin for 22 years before He broke me to my core and came into my life to begin His reshaping process, which also took 14 more years of discipleship before He had me ready to call me to do His work in Battle Plan Ministry (go to this link if you don’t know about BPM – http://battleplanministries.org ). Why couldn’t God have just bypassed at least those 22 years and shortened the 14 years to shape me into His design to serve Him?
Well, actually the answer is found above in meditating on today’s highlight and reference passages. It is reality that we are the clay in God’s hands; and He is the potter. And if God took 40 years of reshaping Moses or 17 years to mold Joseph or almost 35 years to prepare me for ministry, that’s HIS way and HIS timing; and yes, we may not like the speed of the Potter’s hands, but they are HIS hands and He knows best how to shape us for HIS glory.
As Sara Groves sings in the song to which I’ve linked any reader above, … my friend, “It’s gonna be alright,” … as long as we do what God through Peter wrote (in 1st Peter 5: 7) that we “… cast all our cares on Him; because He cares for us.” And today I’ll pray one of those dangerous prayers … that God develop in me the patience to let Him be the potter as I am His clay.
My Prayer for Today … Lord, I’m the clay in Your hands. Help me to be patient as You reshape me into Your own image for me to be a vessel of Your purpose. … Amen
2 comments:
Bill, I'm familiar with the analogy of the Potter and the clay, and quite often we are reminded (usually during a trial or when we want to embark on some adventure of our making and it's not happening fast enough) that God's timing is perfect. But in the context that you put it in (God's context which is the only context that really matters) where you provided empirical data (I'm in IT, give me some slack :) ) with the actual years he's worked in godly men's lives which always resulted in something FAR better than they could've done on tbeir own, it will help me put those faith-testing wait-moments (that's a lot of hypens - I bet there's a single beautiful greek or hebrew word to capture that) into perspective. Thanks for the devotional to start my weekend off 'alright.' =) <><
Thanks for your personal and pertinent comment ... good word, brother! ... <'wrb><
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