I’ve heard preachers and Sunday School teachers say many times that the lesson or sermon they gave was not the one they had been prepared to give. The same often happens for me as I write. I’ll sit down with my thoughts on a particular verse or an idea and start to write…then I backspace through it and it disappears. It’s not my thoughts or my ideas I wish to convey here, but God’s.
This morning a new verse came to mind, but I couldn’t remember exactly where to find it in the scriptures. Like many of God’s messages, the words come to mind but the exact book and chapter escapes me. So I grabbed my Bible to search. The small concordance in the back had none of the keywords I needed, so I opened the Bible to a random page…and there it was!
Perhaps some of you reading this today, as I sometimes do, have been asking the question, WHY? Why am I different? Why is this happening? Why am I having to suffer? Why is the world so messed up and seems to have a hearing problem? Why won’t my kids listen? Why, why why??? Well, here is the answer He wants us to hear from Romans 9:20.
Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?
22 What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
Good question. Who are we to speak against or to question God? It brought to mind the words of a favorite old Hymn: Have Thine Own Way.
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.
God does His best work in us when we are quiet and tuned in to His voice. He is the potter, we are the clay. He has every right to deal with us however He sees fit. Maybe we don’t have answers for all the “why” questions, but we are reassured by His promises. Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Very seldom does an artist discard his work. He might reshape it and start over many times before he gets it just the way he wants it…but in the end, it is the piece he’s most proud of.