"But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand" (Isaiah 64:8).

It's a beautiful verse and a striking concept; to be but clay that the Father forms according to his will. But do we have the humility and sense of submission to let him do his work? Or perhaps, to get to the heart of the matter, do we really trust him? And do we trust him totally, or only partially? It may be, that many of us accept that we are clay and he is the potter, but we have a very specific image of how we want him to mold us, and we only trust him and submit to him as long as he is molding us like we think he should. But whenever things are not going as we would have them, or we're not sure about the shape things are taking, we step in and tell the Lord to back off and let us take over the pottery wheel for a while.

Think of some examples of people in the Bible who struggled at times with how the Lord was forming them. Abraham, Moses, Jacob, Hezekiah, Jonah, Peter. They had to deal with uncertain times and situations, not knowing how the Lord was forming them, and sometimes they tried to take matters into their own hands instead.

Sometimes we just don't understand what the Lord is doing and how he is forming us and why things are going a certain way. This is where our faith and trust must be absolute. Let us learn to fully entrust ourselves to the master potter and stop trying to take over his job or tell him how to do his job.