The Vessel Series: When God Uses the Broken

 

Session 1: The Potter’s Hands

Based on Jeremiah 18:1–6

---

I. The Potter’s House

God told Jeremiah to go to the house of a potter, not a palace, and not a temple.
It was an ordinary workshop filled with clay dust and the steady rhythm of a wheel turning.
There, in a simple room, God revealed one of the most profound truths about the human heart.

“So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel.
But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands,
so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.” (Jeremiah 18:3–4)

Clay does not resist.
Clay does not define itself.
Clay does not hide its imperfections.
It rests in the hands that shape it.

Henri Nouwen wrote,

“Our weakness is not something to hide. It is the place where God can finally work without resistance.”

We are never more ready for God’s shaping than when we are honest about our cracks.

---

II. The Wheel That Turns

The potter works steadily, guiding the clay with patient pressure.
There is no hurry in his hands.
He applies strength where needed and gentleness where the clay is thin.

Jeremiah noticed something essential.
The vessel became marred while in the potter’s hands.

The potter did not discard it.
He did not throw the clay aside.
He simply began again.

“But the pot he was shaping was marred in his hands.” (Jeremiah 18:4)

Brokenness in God’s hands is never final.
It is an invitation to be reshaped.

Thomas Merton wrote,

“God works in the ruins of our plans.
He builds His grace where our strength has crumbled.”

The wheel turns, but the hands never leave the clay.

---

III. The God Who Reshapes

God then spoke to Jeremiah.

“Can I not do with you as this potter does?
As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand.” (Jeremiah 18:6)

This is not a threat.
It is a promise.
It is the gentlest declaration that no flaw, no failure, no fracture is too much for the Maker.

Dallas Willard wrote,

“Grace is not opposed to effort. It is opposed to earning.
It is the steady action of God that transforms us.”

We do not earn being reshaped.
We simply yield to the hands that know us better than we know ourselves.

What feels like breaking is often God removing what hinders beauty.
What feels like pressure is God forming a vessel that can carry His presence.

---

IV. The Beauty of Remaking

In ancient pottery, the most beautiful vessels were often the ones that had been remade.
The potter did not discard the clay that resisted.
He soaked it, softened it, pressed it again, and began a new design.

Remade vessels carried a story.
Their beauty came from being formed twice.

“He made it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.” (Jeremiah 18:4)

God never shapes us according to the expectations of others.
He shapes us according to what seems best to Him.
This is the kindness of sovereignty.

Henri Nouwen wrote,

“We become truly beautiful when we allow God to write His story into our broken places.”

Every crack becomes a place where grace can enter.
Every flaw becomes an opening for glory.

---

V. The Invitation

The Potter invites His people not to perfection but to pliability.
To be clay is to surrender the illusion of self-made strength and to rest in divine shaping.

The vessel’s beauty is not in its symmetry but in the hands that formed it.

“We are the clay, You are the potter.
We are all the work of Your hand.” (Isaiah 64:8)

To be held is to be healed.
To be shaped is to be saved.
To be remade is to be restored.

---

Resting in the Potter’s Hands This Week

1. Name your broken places.
   Write down one area of your life that feels marred or unfinished.
   Offer it to God without explaining or fixing it.

2. Practice spiritual pliability.
   When frustration rises this week, pray quietly:
   “Lord, shape me.”

3. Return to the wheel.
   Read Jeremiah 18:1–6 each day.
   Picture yourself as clay resting in the hands of the Potter.

4. Allow grace to soften you.
   In moments of tension, ask God to soften your heart rather than strengthen your control.

5. Pray for remaking.

   “Lord, I am clay in Your hands.
   Shape what is marred, restore what is wounded,
   and form me into a vessel that carries Your grace.”