Encouragement for Your Week: July 6-12
This Week’s Verse
"And yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter. We all are formed by your hand."
– Isaiah 64:8 (NLT)
Devotion
This verse comes from a prayer Isaiah prayed to God, asking Him to show mercy. Although he was praying for the people of Judah, this prayer still speaks to all of God’s people today. The verse has three key parts and we’ll look at each of the three parts one-at-a-time.
First, we are God’s children, and He is our Father. Because God has brought us into His family, we can trust that He will treat us with the love and care a good father shows. Even when we disobey or mess up, we can expect God to be patient and kind, just like a good loving father would be with his kids. We may not deserve His forgiveness, but we can still come to Him and ask for His mercy because He is our Father. And He will grant it!
Second, we are the clay, and God is the potter. This reminds us that we are made from dust, like it says in Genesis 2:7, and that we are shaped by God into who we are. We depend on Him completely. We shouldn’t blame God or question Him for how He made us (see Romans 9:19–21), but we can ask Him to be gentle with us, because we are weak and fragile—like clay in the hands of a potter.
Finally, since God is the one who formed us, we can ask Him not to throw us away even when we fail. A potter doesn’t usually destroy something he worked hard to make. In the same way, we can ask God to be patient and keep shaping us, instead of giving up on us. And believe it when we say, He won’t give up on you. We can’t shape ourselves into what we’re supposed to be even though we try at times, but we can ask Him to keep molding us into something beautiful that brings Him joy.
This Week’s Challenge
Take 10 minutes each day this week to pray and ask God to shape your heart, your thoughts, and your actions to reflect His character. As you pray, picture yourself as clay in His hands—willing to be molded. After your prayer, write one way you saw God shaping you the previous day, whether it was through a hard moment, a kind word, or a reminder of His truth.