The Idea

Identity Found in God

​The Potter and The Clay
~ The Potter
~ The Clay
~ The Idea
~ The Plan
~ The Refining Fire
~ The Reshaped Pot
~ Living as His Clay Pot

The Idea
 
“…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”  Philippians 1:6
 
“I have an idea!”  I am sure you have said those words.  I am sure you have heard those words said.  Bear with me here as we dig into this phrase a bit.  Depending on the perspective from which these words are said, and if we are honest, depending on who proclaims these words, certain thoughts and emotions arise.  For example, picture someone who shares similar interests with you.  Someone who “gets” you.  Someone who knows what you like.  Someone you can trust and respect.  When this person approaches you and exclaims, “Hey I have a great idea!”  I imagine your heart stirs and adrenaline might kick in as you anticipate hearing the great idea, one that surely you will be excited about!  But then, on the other hand, can you think of someone else, or another scenario, that when you hear the person say, “Hey I have a great idea!” your eyes find themselves in an eye roll, all of a sudden there’s a pit in your stomach, and your mind automatically expects the worst, as you anticipate an idea that will not appeal to you what-so-ever! 
 
Now shift gears and imagine the Trinity, God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit gathers together and proclaims, “Hey, I have a great idea!”  They huddle in as the idea takes shape!  Not only does this conversation take place at the time of your conception which is so beautifully described in Psalm 139:13-16, the same discussion continues throughout your life!  Our Creator, our Potter has a variety of ideas ahead as His hands shape us into who He would have us be.
 
Potters have ideas.  Maybe they take a lump of clay and have an idea to mold the clay into a fruit bowl.  What is our Potter up to?  What is His idea?  I have come to realize that I am something my Potter is shaping.  When He “created my inmost being” and while I recognize that I am “fearfully and wonderfully made”, His ideas don’t stop there.  He has a plan – just for me.  “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”  Psalm 139:16. 
 
I am thinking He has ideas for us.  He doesn’t want us to stay in the mold of infancy, but desires to keep working on us, shaping us into His completion.  Just think about this, what emotion arises, or how are you stirred when you hear your Potter say, “Hey I have an idea!”  Do you know your Potter enough to know how much He loves you?  And do you grasp and accept the truth that out of His abundant love for you, good ideas and good plans await?  Can we come to the conclusion that God has ideas just for us?  I don’t know about you, but my mind can sure come up with ideas, and well, some of them seem like good ideas!  We are challenged to turn our eyes to Him and consider the works of His hand.
 
Because Jesus IS God, He knew God’s idea in detail.  He knew He would be sent to earth as a human, leaving His place in Heaven.  He knew the joys He would experience in His ministries.  He knew the disappointments, trials, temptations, pain and torture He would endure.  But in the midst of these realities, Jesus found Himself in the Garden of Gethsemane crying out to His Father, wondering and asking God a question we may at times find ourselves wondering about, “Oh God,  Yahweh, Father…Is this really a good idea?  Isn’t there another way?”
 
Sometimes we lose sight that God is all-knowing and sovereign.  We just wonder what could He possibly be up to?  But in those moments, Jesus models for us.  Just as He wanted a different idea, a better tasting cup, He had clarity for a moment and shifted His understanding back to His Father’s ideas.  He knew God as no other, and out of knowing the Father, He could find it in Him to turn His trust to Him, to the One who creates good ideas.  In the midst of deep, deep anguish, He resolved and surrendered, “Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
 
May we know that God has good idea for us.  He is, from our conception, molding and shaping us.  Rest in knowing that, and may we, as Philippians 1:6 says, “be confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it out on to completion until the day of “Christ Jesus.”  Write down ideas of yours that God asks you to surrender, and what ideas does He want to share with you.