Consecrate me to Your service

I’m sure that everyone – above a certain age – has seen the film, ‘Ghost’.  And, if you’re of that certain age, you’ll also remember the scene with the clay – hmm, yes, I know the connotations, but it’s the malleability of the clay that’s on my mind. The malleability, the way the potter can change the shape of the clay; change it from one thing to another, in a heartbeat.

Just thinking about that scene caused me to smile, as I began to remember a time in my primary teaching days, watching the children playing with – I’m giving away my age here – plasticine or playdough.  Remembering how they enjoyed the feel of it.  How they rolled it and rounded it, slapped it and poked it.  How they shaped it, changed their minds and did something different with it.  A lump of nothing made into a childlike piece of art. 

Hmm, isn’t that lump of nothing, waiting to be shaped, me?  Isn’t God the One whose hand I’m in?  Shouldn’t He be able to shape me as He wants?   Shouldn’t He be able to do with me as He pleases?

Yes, yes, yes and yes!

The difference here is that He has graced me with the will to choose – the plasticine has none!  Nonetheless, the principle remains – I am clay to be moulded into what He wants!  

So, when I say, “I am Thine [Yours]” or “Consecrate me to Your service,” I’m actually saying, mould me as You want to.  Do with me as You choose.  Make me into what You want.

My will – strong as it is – must become dormant, so that I am malleable in His creative hands.  Isaiah said,” We are the clay and You are the Potter; we are the work of Your hands” [Isaiah 69:8].

Gosh!  I’ve got to stop being the potter, moulding God to my lifestyle!  I’ve got to become malleable in The Potter’s hands.  

How about you?  Are you the potter or the clay?

By, J. Caroline.