Have Thine Own Way, Lord!

The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD saying, "Arise and go down to the potter's house, and there I will announce My words to you."

Then I went down to the potter's house, and there he was, making something on the wheel. But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make.

Then the word of the LORD came to me saying, "Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?" declares the LORD. "Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel. At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy it; if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it. Or at another moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to build up or to plant it; if it does evil in My sight by not obeying My voice, then I will think better of the good with which I had promised to bless it. Jeremiah 18:1-10

The sermon on Sunday, based on this text, really spoke to my heart about the Potter and the clay. God is the Potter. He is Sovereign, in control of everything in our lives, from the mundane to the extraordinary. And He uses both extremes to mold us and shape us and make us into the vessels that He has intended, ultimately into the image of His own Son.

Here’s the thing about clay: the clay doesn’t decide what it’s going to be. The clay isn’t the one who gets to choose to be a bowl or a pitcher or a vase or a goblet, or even a doorstop! The clay has no power to make itself into any of those things. It is the Potter who chooses and the Potter who does the making. As Jeremiah saw at the potter’s house, the potter made the clay into a vessel as it pleased the potter to make.

God is the one who chooses how to make and re-make us after His will, into a vessel as it pleases Him to make. As the clay, we are to be yielded and still, awaiting the Potter’s work, and not trying on our own to become the vessel we think we should be.

I don’t write this from a great, vast experience of being yielded and still, awaiting the Potter’s work. I am the first to admit that I think I know what I should be and I will try to get there myself. Submission is difficult. In the process of trying to “make” myself, I have probably done more harm than if I would have waited patiently on the Potter to do His work.

After watching a brief video of a real-life potter make and re-make the clay into one vessel and then another and then another before settling on the final one, I have a new appreciation for the work of the Potter in my life, and a new resolve to be yielded and still to His work. It is only in His strength and by His grace that I will be able to be in complete submission. It is my prayer, as this hymn says, that through His work in my life, all would see Christ only, always, living in me.

Have Thine Own Way, Lord!
Words by Adelaide Pollard

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Search me and try me, Master, today!
Whiter than snow, Lord, wash me just now,
As in Thy presence humbly I bow.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Wounded and weary, help me, I pray!
Power, all power, surely is Thine!
Touch me and heal me, Savior divine.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Hold o’er my being absolute sway!
Fill with Thy Spirit ’till all shall see
Christ only, always, living in me.