Oakwood Church Fresh Start Women's Devotional Encouragement for Today Hartland Delafield

Smack Down 101
By Pamela Blattner

"God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."
James 4:6

My friend, Lynne, is an artist and has “thrown” a lot of pottery in her day. One day, I asked her about clay. She commented that in order to make clay that is useable, a potter has to start with just the right mixture of earth and water. If there is too much water in the clay and it is too wet, it will not harden. If it is too soft, it will be too weak to hold up and nothing will be able to be formed from it. If it is too dry, it will crumble and break apart and will be just as useless. There must be a perfect combination of the two ingredients in order for clay to be useful.

I started to think about the methods God uses to form us into the kind of vessel He wants to employ for His kingdom. I grew up in an environment where an individual’s value was determined by her education, ability and expertise that led to wealth. I’d been striving for my parents’ approval all my life, and never quite measuring up. You can just imagine the relief I felt when I went to a new church one day and heard the pastor’s message on grace. I immediately went down to the front of the sanctuary after the service and approached him. I remember saying, “I’ve never heard that before. That’s in the Bible? It’s really not grace plus works that save us?” That was the day I became clay in the Potter’s hands. Smack Down 101!

It’s 30 years later and I still find myself being molded. Well, it took God 20 long years of pouring and pounding until the consistency of Jacob's heart became soft enough. Moses appears to have needed 40 years! Is it possible for us as believers to have a tender heart for a season, but then when God speaks to us about a difficult issue we choose not to humble ourselves, but rather to harden our hearts? God has lovingly allowed some things in my life to pound me, in order to make my heart useable for His kingdom agenda.

Jesus loves a tender heart. God always seeks to do one thing with us on the Potter's wheel…not to make us more powerful and famous, but to make us more like His Son Jesus, a humble and meek servant.

GOING DEEPER:
1. In what ways is God trying to mold and shape you? Are you humbling yourself and softening your heart toward Him, or remaining hard-hearted?
2. Think of a time when you were in pride, arrogance, or smugness and you confessed it. How did God give you grace when you humbled yourself?

FURTHER READING:
Proverbs 4:23; Ephesians 5:21; Romans 12:3; Jeremiah 18:3-4

Pam and her husband Richard have two adult children and two grandchildren. She serves Oakwood through its Family Care Ministries.