Monday, November 3, 2008

On And Off The Potter's Wheel

by Donna L. Watkins

Life brings adversity because we live in a fallen world and the devil never gives up trying to keep us from becoming who God intended us to be.

© 2008 Donna L. Watkins - Bee in Rose of Sharon Bloom
Free will gives us many choices, but with choice there is always good and bad. I often choose bad simply because I'm stubborn and hard-headed. We folks with these types of personalities are harder to keep on the Potter's wheel.

When troubles come, we jump on the wheel and beg God to fix it ... to fix us ... to make everything okay again. I was raised by grandparents so I was definitely spoiled. What a great choice of words to describe a childhood that doesn't give a realistic view of life. Although my Mom (grandmother) was the disciplinarian and tried to rule with rules and spanking, my Daddy (grandfather) always considered his role was to simply adore me. He made everything right. He was always there to fix it just the way I wanted it and never had a harsh word towards me.

What a wonderful thing to have somebody who loves you that much ... but love holds many responsibilities and with it comes times when a loving Father does not respond to a child's every desire. That's our Perfect Heavenly Father. He sees beyond our wants, desires, and short-sighted requests and does what true love would do. The ultimate best! But it's in God's viewpoint, not ours. There comes the rub against that spoiled nature of always having it your own way.

The problem with spoiled children and adults is that they don't know how to process "No" or "Wait" very easily. God has many promises in His Word, but there are requirements for the promises. There are many "if clauses" in the Bible.

When I came upon Henry Wright's book, A More Excellent Way, it spoke to my spirit confirming that the root of most health issues is our emotional status. What we think, what we say to ourselves, and how we process life. Research has now confirmed this as they link stress, personalities and lifestyles to the major diseases.

I've had health challenges my entire life and found ways to work around them with my headstrong and determined personality. When both of my parents died suddenly within 5 months of each other, Fibromyalgia set in. When I came upon the aforementioned book after 4 years with the pain, the profile fit for sure. I made an appointment at Pastor Wright's ministry and woke up the next day with it gone. As long as I kept my mental state affirming the destruction of the root causes of the disease, all went well.

But life has a habit of nipping at your heels and a series of tragedies entered the picture and I went into Rheumatoid Arthritis. Auto-immune diseases are said to be based on the person attacking themselves and guilt and grief are a form of attack, besides the thoughts and words we speak to ourselves.

We moved to another state and transitioned the business from retail to internet with a lot of stress in the process since my role in the household is organizer and administrator. I seem to take on responsibilities that nobody else can find. Being first-born and an only child makes one quite independent.

In my case, I hear God calling it stiff-necked. There are not good words that go along with that profile in the Bible, so I've made my path through life very hard on myself by not trusting God. He just didn't move fast enough for me. I'd jump onto the Potter's wheel begging to be fixed and then jump off before He got far with the reshaping. I've been doing that for a long time. As you know from my writings, I usually write to preach to myself. It is said you don't learn something until you teach the information to others.

It's so very evident that when my thoughts are controlled (2 Corinthians 10:5) my health improves. When I am willing to stay on the Potter's wheel and trust God, life goes well. Keeping your thoughts under control is the key to staying on the wheel. Consider this:

"Those who are careful about what they say protect their lives." Proverbs 13:3 NCV

Matthew Henry's commentary on this verse is this: "He that thinks before he speaks, that suppresses evil if he have thought it, keeps his soul from a great deal both of guilt and grief. Many a one is ruined by an ungoverned tongue."

I would say we are done in by an ungoverned mind. The mind is so much faster than the tongue and it can keep going 24/7 if we allow it to. Insomnia is an epidemic in our nation. Almost 12% of people are known to have insomnia. What about the others who aren't on the charts? We are a nation that has left God behind. We have taken our struggles and troubles into our own hands and they're too big to handle. We were never designed to be able to handle them and trying to do so is certain insanity of some sort.

How long it's taken God to get me to where I willingly give up! It's a daily event. The trouble and crises and tragedies will come as long as we're outside of God's protection. We place ourselves outside of it when we live in the sin of pride. The belief that we can accomplish it on our own. In essence we set ourselves up as God, by worshiping what we can accomplish ourselves.

God wants to create a new you. What we go through is the process. How many times we have to take each classroom depends on how quickly we learn. Funny .. I'm a quick learner on things that I want to know how to do ... but I've been slower than molasses on learning that God does a better job of running my life. I know it in mind, but have not been willing to live by it.

God wants to raise us up to better relationships, jobs, ministries, and life experiences. We can't fix ourselves, but we've got a Master Fixer who has parted seas, turned water into wine, kept the sun from shining for a day, and raised the dead. How silly for us to ever consider we can fix ourselves. We are already healed because of Jesus' work on the Cross, but we have free will. We have to apply it to our lives and minds and it's all about Faith. Without it, it's impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). So our part is to believe and let God do the work.

Pray with me that I will remain on the Potter's wheel and I pray that if you've been jumping on and off yourself, that you will remain with me. Spinning with peace and joy of being a loved and cherished Child of God!

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© 2008 Donna L. Watkins - This article was reprinted with permission from TheNatureInUs.com.
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1 comment:

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