Potter and the Clay - Upside Down & Broken

This week I am relearning that I am the clay and God is the potter.  I say relearning, because I have learned this before.  But I am human and I forget.  I want you to know that I'm going to talk a little about Satan today.  I didn't think I would ever do that because in the past, his name was like a bad word to me. Well... yes!  He is BAD... The ultimate bad and we need to talk about it.  He's against us - but God is for us!  So... here we go:


You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!  Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'He did not make me.'?  Can the pot say of the potter, 'He knows nothing.'?  Isaiah 29:16


Remember what God's word says - do it and we'll be blessed!  God desires to change us from the inside out, renewing everything that has been messed up in our lives.  He wants to take us out of our self-destructive behaviors and give us new habits that are good for us.  Satan is our enemy and wants to pull us into the temptations so we feel ugly and defeated.  This sin will become for you like a high wall, cracked and bulging, that collapses suddenly, in an instant.  It will break in pieces like pottery.  Isaiah 30:13-14


But we can only change our habits when we learn to walk again with God.  He is our deliverer - he takes us from where we are and delivers us to His life of joy!  I know it's not easy to change habits.  In the past I would drag my feet sometimes.  But what God did for me was so so so much more difficult - He sent HIS son to die on the cross for ALL OF my SINS and yours!  I love Him and I will do it...  I am willing to listen and obey.  Are you?  God will guide us and direct us.  As I learned in my study, the only time you are true to who you are is when you are walking like one of His children.  We need to act like his child, listen to him, prefer his truth over other people's illusions, and rely on Him not ourselves or other things in life.  We were created to attach and depend so that we will migrate toward God and find safety there.


God also wants us to depend on his truth.  He is here for us.  He really wants us to lean against his truth for support.  When I need it, I just need to remember to cry out and ask!  I've been doing that a lot lately.


It's so important that we remember that he wants to hear from us.  Amy Grant's song "Better than a Hallelujah" says just that.  I just heard it for the first time today and it talks about how God really wants to hear our cries to him.  It's like a song to him.  Listening to music makes me happy.  So when she talks about our cries to God being like music to his ears, it's just a wonderful thing.  I need to remind myself that it's not just the major things that he wants us to cry out to him for either.  It's those days when my little man won't cooperate and I lose my patience... or your boss just doesn't understand what you're trying to say.  Cry out to God!  He will give us the actions and the words to get his will done.  He doesn't want us to be in misery at home or at work.  He loves us - he is our Father.


This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:
In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength,
but you would have none of it.  Isaiah 30:15  


God talks about the people of Israel not listening to what he wants them to do.  They go off and do other things and miss out on what he has for them.  When we do not obey, we miss out too.  If we repent (turn away from sin), but do not turn to God we lack the power to overcome the temptation the next time it arises.  So we must repent & turn to God, then we will have the power to overcome the temptations of sin.  Once we obey God, there is nothing more that we can do.  We then wait for Him to bring the victory in our life.  Some may say that there are consequences to following God.  Guess what?  The consequences of our obedience are His problem and not ours.  Obey God and he will do the rest!


God wants to mold us into what he created us to be.  His obedient children.
I am letting him mold me...are you??






You can listen to Amy Grant's song here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm5kx3xqmg0&feature=channel

Beauty from Ashes

Sometimes I read things in the bible and wonder.. why did they do that?  I look at the bottom of the page of my study bible to see if there is a description and if there isn't, that's all the farther I go.  Well... why??  Laziness, I suppose.  With all of the resources at my fingertips... I should inquire more.  That is something I am going to change.


I'm so glad I am going through this bible study!  I am learning so much more about Christ, about what God wants me to know about Him and so much more about myself that I didn't know.


Last week we learned about Beauty from Ashes...     Have you heard or read of people putting ashes on themselves in the bible?  "Tamar put ashes on her head and tore the ornamented robe she was wearing.  She put her hand on her head and went away, weeping aloud as she went."  2 Samuel 13:19  There are many examples throughout the bible of people putting ashes on their heads.  It symbolizes mourning.  Tamar's story is horrifying.  Thankfully mine is not.  I can learn from this and know that I do not ever want to be caught in such a stronghold that I am desolate, like Tamar was.  She never got out of the stronghold.  Satan had that hold on her.  


God wants us to have a full, happy life in Him.   Satan tries to pull us down by making us believe that we are ugly and not worthy of all the love and goodness God has for us!   


God wants me to look in the mirror - and see what He sees.  I am beautiful!!  You are too.  : )