{"id":21271,"date":"2017-01-20T00:10:41","date_gmt":"2017-01-20T08:10:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lccredding.com\/lcc\/?p=9931"},"modified":"2017-01-20T00:10:41","modified_gmt":"2017-01-20T08:10:41","slug":"january-20-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2017\/01\/20\/january-20-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"January 20, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cSurely you have things turned around! Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay; for shall the thing made say of him who made it, \u2018He did not make me\u2019? Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it, \u2018He has no understanding\u2019?\u201d<\/em> Isaiah 29:16<\/span><\/p>\n

Cultivating Awe and Reverence for God, Day 20<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

The Potter<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

I\u2019ve never known a musician who would play an instrument in public that wasn\u2019t properly tuned, or perform a song with a part he continued to stumble over. Nor have I seen an artist who would put out a half-finished work, or display something she was not pleased with. They would not knowingly broadcast the fact that they had no talent, or that they thought \u201cgood enough\u201d was actually good enough.<\/span><\/p>\n

Only the best will do.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why, then, do we charge God with doing wrong (Job 1:22) in the way He created us? Why do we complain against Him for our quirks that seem to belong to us alone, or for our looks, or lack of talent, or our station in life? Has His handiwork been in vain? Was it wasted? When it was time for you to be created, did He suddenly forget how?<\/span><\/p>\n

In Genesis 1:31, God saw everything He had made and declared His creation very good. We don\u2019t have trouble believing this in regards to the landscape, the heavens, the creatures and animals (although I\u2019ve been known to question the wisdom of creating mosquitos which, for all I know, may have played a starring role for some reason in the distant past or may yet in the future.) No, our problem usually comes when we find fault with some aspect of our own bodies, whether that is physical, spiritual, emotional, or mental.<\/span><\/p>\n

My body is not just the same as your body in looks or in inner workings. My likes and dislikes are not the same as yours. My emotional well-being is between Him and me. My talents and giftings are of His choosing. We are not all equal in all ways\u2014except in value. What He made was very good (in those words, He gave us value), yet we are all sinners in need of a Savior, and He provided One because He loves us.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But in one area we all struggle in various ways. He gave us flesh. We agonize over bringing it under control. We battle it. \u201cFor I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members\u201d<\/em> (Romans 7:22-23).<\/span><\/p>\n

Is the flesh from God? Is it GOOD?<\/span><\/p>\n

Although our sin nature was not His original plan, we can still thank God for our flesh, for it serves a mighty purpose in us. Just ponder the wisdom of this: If we did not have our fleshly nature, we would never need to choose Him over anything else. We would never have to exercise our will nor bring our thoughts into captivity to Jesus. We would never have to develop the spiritual muscles to say NO, would never know our God-given boundaries, would never know spiritual victory and triumph. We would not know the truth about ourselves. Our flesh ensures that we have to depend on the Spirit in this life, repent, acknowledge our need for a Savior, and ask forgiveness. Our flesh reminds us that we can\u2019t do \u201clife\u201d without God.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our flesh is the training ground He uses to make our spirit strong. This is part of the process of the Potter making the clay useful for every good work. In His utter wisdom, He created us in such a way that the biggest battles transform us the most, the strongest storms develop the most strength, and the hottest fires bring forth the most usefulness, allowing us to know His victory. This causes me to reverence Him all the more\u2014no matter how hard my life seems at times, God has never made a mistake.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFather, let this be the proof of our reverence for You: we accept how You have made us, and we trust Your reasons. In Jesus\u2019 Name, Amen.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cSurely you have things turned around! Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay; for shall the thing made say […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92wjD-5x5","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}