noun. a person, device, or substance that removes impurities, sediment, or other unwanted matter from something.
Hold nothing back.
Hold the hands of your life open, as it were, and surrender yourself completely to the One who created you for His glory.
Surrender is hard sometimes. You think you’ve taken your hands off of a thing and given it over to Jesus, but then the next “thing” comes. The test. The processing. Ashes (the death of a thing) for what you thought was beauty, followed by true beauty. The thing you envisioned as the beautiful future or circumstance, (or whatever it may be right now in your case) in your life becomes ashes. It is tried in the fire of refining. In the crucible of Christ.
The decorations, the pomp, the earthly agendas you had are burned away so that the Lord can show you what’s left. What’s real. Eternal. What will last.
Then, like the Potter and the clay, He begins to mold the new you, smoothing away the rough areas. He’s spinning you around on His potter’s wheel. It can feel confusing, exhausting, unnerving. We can feel dizzy; disoriented…But He’s got His hand on you. Remember, you’re HIS vessel.
We are just clay. Clay doesn’t tell the potter how to make the vessel. It simply sits on the wheel, yielding to the Potter’s work. Clay is mixed with the Water of Life to keep it pliable and so that it can be formed into something useful.
Will you let the potter mix His Water of Life into your life? Will you completely trust Him to make you into something beautiful? A vessel of honor. A vessel of His glory for His glory.
Allow the refining. Allow the shaping. Give yourself completely over to the work he wants to do in you. He wants to make you prepared for the good works he’s got for you.
The Lord is a gentleman. He will not impose himself to do a work in you that you are not willing for Him to do. You might lose everything you hold dear. But then again, you might gain everything He holds dear and find your purpose and promises in the process. Life or death. Blessings or curses. The choice is yours.
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