Devotionals

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"It is not thou that shapest God; it is God that shapest thee.

If then thou are the work of God, await the hand of the Artist who does all things in due season.

Offer Him thy heart soft and tractable and keep the form in which the Artist has fashioned thee.

Let thy clay be moist, lest thou grow hard and lose the imprint of His fingers."

What awesome thoughts Leonard Sweet shares in his book, "A Cup of Coffee at the Soul Cafe", page 16, that I recently received. Leonard writes in a style that I thoroughly enjoy and understand, conversational writing.

One of the things that the Lord has spoken to me over the years is that He wanted me to stop trying to figure things out but rather to sit at His feet and listen and then I read the following statement by Leonard, "Right now God wants to prepare us for something that we cannot possibly understand or predict. Only by accepting "not-knowing" will we be accepted into the heart of existence itself. Only by accepting God’s plan, not ours, will we find ultimate fulfillment. In the words of God through the prophet Jeremiah, "I alone know the plans I have for you, plans of peace not of disaster, plans to bring about the future you hoped for" (29:11 Authors paraphrase)

As I read that, it spoke volumes to me and it was also a wake-up call. That the Lord has been trying to get my attention.

For the last three years it seemed no matter where I turned, what I read, that particular verse had a way of showing up in conversations, other blogs, letters I receive, no matter what, that verse was like a flashing neon sign to me from the Lord and I think it is beginning to sink in, that His plans, are good plans.

That He wants to remind us that He is the potter, we are the clay. That it is only as we allow the things of life, the things that we go through, even when we don’t understand the why of it to keep us moist and pliable in His hands.

We have a choice to be bitter or better, to yield to the Master Potter knowing that when He is done we will be a work of art in His hands that will reflect the reality of who He is and what He has done. That He has taken the broken, wounded vessels and makes them to be the works of His hands to shine forth the life He has breathed within.

Leonard goes on to say "God sends to each of us various and sundry windows of opportunity to meet Him. All of life’s exercises are the preparations to leap forth in faith through these moving, open windows. It is an institutional head-on plunge into the unknown and unpredictable.

It is a leap of faith, of trust, of taking what we have and are going through and allowing it to bring us ever closer to our Father and realizing indeed His plans are good plans, for us!!

Till later,

Paul

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