“Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make it.” – Jeremiah 18:3-4

We all tend to wonder about the various things we experience in life. On one hand we know that God causes or allows everything to happen, on the other hand we cannot understand how it is working for good. As students of the Bible we know God does all things well, but some things make no sense to us–we suppose they could/should be better. So we are confused. Our text gives us some insight as to why this is so. God is ever at work in our life making us a vessel as seems good to Him. And He is neither asking for, nor accepting, advice from the clay. We need not know the reason for everything that happens. All we need to know is that there is a reason–a good reason.

Adrian Rogers said, “The making of pottery is one the oldest arts known to men. A potter takes clay and molds it and squeezes it until it is soft and pliable. It is a beautiful thing to watch: a vessel of beauty or a vessel of service, or both, emerge from that ugly clay.

God is the potter.  We are His workmanship.  God is the Master Workman, working on us. Think of yourself as the clay and see what God can do with you, for He is at work in your life.

Though you may not understand it now, every turn of the wheel has been a part of God’s plan. If He does not rule, God overrules. He’s going to turn every Calvary to an Easter, every midnight to a sunrise. He is going to turn every tear to a pearl and make a diadem for you.”

“And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.”–Luke 4:1–2

There is a widespread idea today that if we are doing what we should, everything will work out wonderfully—we won’t get sick, we won’t have money trouble, and our families will enjoy peace and harmony. Yet the Bible paints a different picture. While there are blessings for obedience, the Christian life is far from being simple and painless. There are times when doing exactly what we should do leads us to difficulty and hardship. Jesus was not out of place when the devil came to tempt Him. He was exactly where the Holy Spirit had led Him.

The temptation of Jesus happened at a time when He was physically weak and alone. There were no disciples to encourage Him; there was no human support at all. Yet in that moment, Jesus still had full confidence in His Father. The presence of the Holy Spirit gave Him all of the help and spiritual strength that He needed to deal with what was coming.

We are never alone, even if we are separated from all our family and friends. The Holy Spirit is still there when things get tough. And in those moments, our faith is more important than ever. The devil knows this, and he attempts to get us to question God’s goodness. One of his main tactics against us is to bring suffering in hopes that the pain and trouble will make us turn against God. “And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life” (Job 2:4). When we live with an awareness of the Holy Spirit, we realize that we are never alone.(Daily in the Word)

“Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”—Rom 8:37 

“Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”–Isaiah 41:10

Snowflakes are fascinating.. They come in all different shapes and sizes.  Some appear as delicate lace doilies others as shining stars.  Yet they all have their similarities. Each snowflake has six points, is made up of molecules of hydrogen and oxygen, and is symmetrical in shape.

But did you know that the ice that makes a snowflake collects around a particle of dust floating in the atmosphere? The tiny imperfection may be as small as 1/100,000 of a millimeter in size, but it has to exist for a snowflake to form!

In the same way, imperfections in life can often be the catalysts that cause something wonderful and beautiful to happen. A “foreign invader” that crashes into our lives—such as a terminal illness, an accident, or a heartbreak—can actually turn into a source of blessing.

As it says in Ecclesiastes 3:11, “He hath made every thing beautiful in his time…“.

When you encounter obstacles in life, remember that they give you, as a believer, the chance to let God make something wonderful happen. If you are struggling with a difficult situation in your life, seek the Lord and wait for Him to create from it a beautiful blessing. Because I promise…if you’re looking for it…He will!

Thank God that when hardships come, He makes something beautiful as a result! Pray that He would continue to transform your trials into blessings by surrounding you with His grace, love, and mercy.( Senior Living)

” Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom;…“–Col. 3:16

Probably prayer is less neglected in devotions, than is the reading of the Bible. Many people who would not go out any morning without a few moments of prayer, will go forth day after day into the thick of life’s duties and perils, without reading even a verse of Scripture! They feel the necessity of asking God to keep, guide and bless them — but they fail to realize that it is in and through meditating on His Word, that God chiefly gives His richest and best blessings.

It is in His Word, that God reveals Himself. We cannot know what He is like, nor what the attributes of His character are — unless we ponder the Scriptures. We cannot learn what God’s will is, nor what He would have us to do and to be — if we do not look into His Word. There is nothing that we need more, than to hear God speaking to us every morning. This is possible, only as we open the Bible and let its words whisper their messages to us.

No matter how familiar we may be with the teachings of the Scriptures, we need to ponder them anew every morning to keep their pure ideals and lofty requirements ever before us, lest we allow our standard of holy living to be lowered.

A celebrated painter always kept some purely-colored stones on his table. When asked by a visitor why he did so, he said it was to keep his eye up to tone. When he was working in pigments, unconsciously his sense of color was weakened. By keeping a pure color near him he brought his eye up to tone again, just as the musician by his tuning-fork brings himself up to the right pitch. In the same way, we continually need to turn to God’s Word to keep our thoughts, and character, and life up to the true standard.

Rubenstein used to say that he could never omit his daily practice on the piano, for if he did, the quality of his playing would at once begin to deteriorate. He said that if he missed practice for three days — the public would know it; if he missed practice for two days — his friends would know it; and if he did not practice for even one day — he himself knew it!–J R Miller