This blog is designed to create community for believers and provide support for seekers. I encourage all readers to share their faith in an effort to lift and encourage one another.
“Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One who is leading.”
― Oswald Chambers
Lord, just as the tiny mustard seed can grow into a mighty tree, enable my faith to grow. Show me the path you’d have me take and give me the faith to walk that path, step by step. Even though I may not know what lies around the bend, let me trust in you for each of those steps since you know what is best for me. Thank you for loving me enough to guide me along this path of life.
What about you? What events have helped you to grow your faith and to worship the God who guides your steps?
Have you ever watched the potter at work? He centers a lump of clay on the wheel, creates a small indention in the middle, then pours water over the clay. As the wheel spins, his hands deftly shape the clay until he has created his pot in the shape he wants.
In scripture God is compared to a potter. Can you see him at work, creating with clay, molding and shaping each vessel until it’s the perfect shape and size? Each of us is carefully, lovingly, uniquely formed by our Lord’s hands.
Unfortunately, in our human perceptions, we view ourselves, the vessels he is shaping, and wish we were different. “Perhaps a different shape or size would be better,” we think, or we wish to use this pot for a different purpose. We constantly resist his hands, molding us to his will. But God, in His wisdom, knows what he is doing, and our wishes to change often illustrate how much we doubt his wisdom. Still, we constantly try to “correct” what God has made.
At times we look at others and wish to change them. “If this pot were just a little wider,” we mistakenly think, “it could be used for a different purpose. If this pot had a slightly different shape, it would be beautiful.” We try to change that vessel into our image. When we do that, we doubt God’s wisdom, and we doubt His handiwork. The clay never dictates to the potter what shape it should be; neither does it tell the potter how to shape other pots.
God created the world in seven days, yet he constantly refines and perfects us. Can you see him at His wheel? He pauses a moment, steps back, looks, and says, “It is good.”
Father, make us aware of your hand in our lives, shaping and molding each of us into your image. Help us to yield to Your hand and to Your judgment of the size, shape, and purpose for each of your precious vessels.
Isaiah 64:8: (NKJ): “Yet, O Lord, You are our Father; We are the clay, You are the potter we are all the work of are Your hand.”
“Right now, we wear our souls on the inside. But one day we will be “clothed in righteousness” as we wear our souls on the outside, brilliant and glorious.”
-Joni Eareckson Tada.
Thank you, Jesus, for enabling our souls to live in eternity with You,
“We lose interest and give up when we have no vision, no encouragements, and no improvements, but only experience our everyday life with its trivial tasks. The thing that really testifies for God in the long run is steady perseverance… Ask God to keep the eye of your Spirit open to the risen Christ and take the next step.” Oswald Chambers
Lord, show me how to keep my vision focused on your will in my life. Help me to keep my eyes on your will and to wait for your vision, encouragement, and strength.
Do you remember watching a baby learn to walk? First, she holds Mom’s hand tightly, walking with the reassurance of that grip. Soon she lets go, taking tentative steps on her chubby legs. Back and forth she walks, from Mom to Dad and back to Mom. She has complete confidence; her parents will protect her. After her confidence grows, she ventures out on her own.
The steps are slow and the child is wobbly, sometimes swaying to capture her balance. She falls often, usually by plopping onto her padded bottom. But she doesn’t give up. After falling, she may crawl toward her goal and then get up and walk a few more steps. So it goes: walk, walk, plop, crawl, crawl, walk, walk, plop. Repeatedly, she toddles her erratic walk. Sometimes she’s off balance and lurches to one side; sometimes she rushes to keep from falling forward. But she walks. She learns. Before long, she is running. She runs everywhere. She is so full of the joy of running that she forgets to crawl.
When we first accept Jesus as our Savior, we are born again; becoming babies in the spiritual world. As spiritual babies, we learn to walk spiritually. Our heavenly Father watches over us as we learn. Like a baby, we are tentative at first, unwilling to venture out on our own. Just as the earthly father encourages his children to walk, our heavenly Father encourages us on our spiritual walks. Like our earthly fathers, He holds his out arms, hoping we will bravely walk toward Him. With God’s guidance and encouragement, we gather the courage to take tentative steps. We wobble, just as the baby does. Yes, we fall down. Unfortunately, unlike the baby, we sometimes refuse to move. The key to improving our spiritual walk is to keep trying, just as the baby does. When we lose our balance and fall, we cannot just sit. We get up and continue to walk; if we cannot walk, we crawl. Learning to walk with God is a slow process: walk, walk, plop, crawl, crawl, walk, walk, plop. The baby does not give up when she falls; neither should we. Over and over, we step toward our Father. No matter how wobbly and unsure our steps, we make progress toward Him. Before long we find ourselves walking toward God with confidence, perhaps even running with joy.
Oh God, our Father, guide us as we learn to walk with You. Teach us, encourage us, help us stand back up when we fall.
II Peter 3:17, 18 “Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.”
“Home is the center of my being where I can hear the voice that says: ‘You are my Beloved, on you my favor rests’—the same voice that gave life to the first Adam and spoke to Jesus, the second Adam; the same voice that speaks to all the children of God and sets them free to live in the midst of a dark world while remaining in the light.”
Growing Our Faith Together 