Sharp Edges

 "Yet you, LORD, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand."  Isaiah 64:8

No matter how long I am here and how much longer I will go on, I am reminded again and again for my need to never leave the Potter's wheel. I'm reminded of this by all the sharp edges that keep appearing in my life. Sharp edges that can cut and scratch. Sharp edges that need to be smoothed and shaped by the loving, but strong, firm hands of the Master Potter....my Father God. I think that perhaps you know of this in your own life as well.

One of the great wonders of being on His wheel, of living and walking with Him in His Holy Spirit, is that He continues to bring us back around again and again, as He confronts us with our sharp edges. As He addresses them and shapes them in His hands. That's where we see the love and faithfulness of God. He'll never be content with allowing things, characteristics, attitudes, to remain in us that can harm others and us as well. He will keep His wheel spinning, bringing us back around again and again, exposing the sharp edges of our life and applying the pressure needed to remove them, smooth them, and make us soft and pliant in His hands. It's a lifetime process.

We can see this process in Jesus' ministry, especially with His disciples. He continually brought them back to where they had been failing, especially in the matters of belief, exposing that which was hindering their walk with Him. He continues this ministry in His people, in you and me, through His Holy Spirit, bringing conviction, correction, and shaping as He does. It can be painful. Shaping our lives and removing our flaws, some of them very deep, involves the friction of His hands pressing deep into our lives. Usually, one turn on the wheel is not enough. It can take many. He's never in a hurry. He desires to make us a beautiful work of His hand. His masterpiece. We all begin as lumps of clay with Him, but in us, He sees the masterpiece He created us to be. It's not the lump of clay, or all of its sharp edges that He looks upon. He sees the piece He is laboring to make us.

We all have our sharp edges. He, the Potter, will deal with them, but here's the key; we have to submit to His "wheel," which is His cross, and then to His hands as He works in us His nature and His life. It begins with submission. A submission that is not only initial, but ongoing. We yield to the wheel, and then yield continuously to the shaping process He is using on us.

Sharp edges. He keeps bringing to my attention the ones that remain in me. My choice in them is will I stay on His wheel and allow His fingers to remove them, painful or not, or will I jump off the wheel. That's your choice as well. I've made mine. What's yours?

Blessings,
Pastor O