Closer?

This is week four and even now with the refrain of ‘draw me nearer’, in the hymn ‘I am Thine’, I’m still stuck on being malleable in the Potter’s hands, pondering what I’ve learnt.

How problematic should it be to simply stay on the right track?  It shouldn’t really be difficult because it is the right track.  But it can be so very testing, so very demanding.

I was musing on this – I muse a great deal.   I thought, it’s like going on a diet – yes, I know that diets are no longer en vogue, one should follow an eating plan.  Nonetheless, it’s like going on a diet – and I know most people can relate to that.

If you can relate, have you ever been at the place where you need to lose a couple of kilos … ok, many kilos, and you set out on that path with good intentions?

You’re rocking it on the first day, or couple of days – possibly a week.  But then there’s that day.  

That day, when all that is in your mind is that big, round, moist, Belgian white chocolate-chip cookie.  Or the day when you get a whiff of that tantalising, mouth-watering aroma of fish and chips.  Or theday when you see someone biting into a big, juicy burger – whatever it is.  It’s that day when every fibre only wants to experience what you shouldn’t have.  

You get my drift.  

You reason that you can return to the diet tomorrow.  But you know that once the door is opened that diet might be the hardest thing to go back to.  

Ever been there?  I know I have.

I’m happily in the Potter’s hands, being fashioned by Him: wanting to be drawn closer to Him. But, there’s that day.  That day when my sense of self, or self-will – call it what you want – raises itself to tell me that, just this once, I can do what I know won’t be good for me and then go back to being in the hands of the Potter tomorrow!

Ever been there?  I know I have.  So, what do you do?

Well, even though it can be so very hard to give Him my complete will, I know He’s the right way.  So, on that day – however many times that day occurs – I need to muster my weapons to fight the infiltration to my senses.  That’s when I need to close my eyes; that’s when I need to relax, to rest [selah, pause] in Him.  That’s when I need to allow Him to draw me near, in order to stay on the right track [Psalm 119:35].

If I don’t allow myself to be malleable in the Potter’s hands [Psalm 119:73], by purposefully giving Him my will on that day, my self will cause me to lose my way.  My inflexibility, my weakness, will cause me to pile on the spiritual kilos and become un-malleable.

That’s what I’ve learnt.

Are you the same?

J. Caroline