Jer 18:6 - “O house of Israel, can I not do with you what I want?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel."
The Clay Prayer: "Lord, do whatever you want with me." (But then under our breath we think ... as long as it is comfortable, exciting, and fulfills my desires of what I want to be.)
Owning up to that is difficult. When our expectations are not met... When the job or income doesn't happen... When the problems continue to mount up... When nothing seems to go our way ... most people start to question what God is doing. Even the great prophet Jeremiah needed a hands-on lesson with the potter and clay to be reminded of God's will. And even Jeremiah responded to difficult times with the two typical reactions: "Take Over" or "Hide Out".
Taking Over is when the clay pushes God away and starts to try to form itself the way we want to be. The Taking Over method is about the clay trying to become the potter - we try to engineer our lives into the form we want. Life becomes more about what we want to get out of it than what God wants to use us for. Taking Over can often lead to more momentary happiness, but it leaves God's plan on the potter's wheel. And we really never become what it is we're striving for - because we don't have the potter's perspective, (the clay can't see what it's making itself into).
The other reaction tends to be "Hiding Out", where we just leave the wheel and sit in a container. Hiding Out is choosing to stay a clump of clay. Instead of pursuing something, we try to live in an avoidance of God's will. While it leads to different forms of temporary happiness, the clay's life is driven by regret and fear. Those reacting as "Hide Outs" try to sell their own life as successful, only to deceive themselves of the waste their life has become by setting for the temporary. God's will becomes too difficult or demanding, because the change required is too scary to them. So the clay just stays clay - and never becomes a useful instrument in God's house.
God's point in the passage is to remember who is the Lord. The "clay prayer" can be shortened down to the first word: LORD. By saying He is LORD, we don't need to be redundant with saying the rest. LORD is saying He is the Potter, and I am clay. If He is truly LORD, then Taking Over as the Potter or Hiding Out to be clay is not an option. We must simply be clay on the wheel of the Potter.
So our reaction to challenging circumstances or unmet expectations should be to "Stay Centered". Staying Centered is staying in the hands of the Potter on the wheel. Instead of trying to become the potter, or trying to get off the wheel and remain unused clay, we get back to the center of the wheel and let the LORD continue to work on us. In fact, the sooner the clay gets back into the Potter's hands, the less hardened it becomes -- which means it can be formed and forged more quickly into the desires of the Potter.
Staying Centered is the Clay Prayer "LORD". It means going back to obeying the Scriptures. It means trusting God's Will to be done WITHIN the circumstances I'm facing. It means to put aside my wishes for what I want to be, and let God make me into what He wants me to be. It stops evaluating success based on what I'm seeing, and start seeing success as being the clay in God's hands.
An easy way to Stay Centered is the one word Clay Prayer --- LORD. Just start calling on His Name in every moment of weakness, with every thought of Hiding Out, with every desire to Take Over. Say it 100s of times every day to remind yourself to stay in the center of the wheel. He is the Potter, I am the Clay. Then let all of your activities be molded into what He is wanting to do with you... and before you know it, the circumstances will change.
Don't Take Over or Hide Out - Get back on Center.
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