Humble Pie...We are the clay!

When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom. Proverbs 11:2

Pride is one very difficult thing to swallow. It has been called the source of all sin; it
certainly gets in the way of perceiving God correctly. A lot of folks want their turn
at the potter's wheel when it comes to fashioning God in the way they wish Him to 
be. They pick and choose attributes that fit their own perception of what their God
ought be like. "Well, my God is a God of _____."  How could your God allow that
to happen?" Where was God when this or that crisis occurred?"

The tough-to-swallow news is that "we" are the clay. We are part of a creation
spoken into existence by the almighty God. He is the artist, the greatest creator of
them all. We are the material He chose to fashion into human beings created in the
image of God with certain characteristics that reflect the very different being
called God.

For us to attempt to limit or to define Him as some sort of prerequisite to our
willingness to "accept" or "believe" in Him is very dangerous. We have a hard time
accepting ourselves as raw material, if you will. We want to be the master of our
existence and we are very willing to nudge a God in that fits our conception of what
he ought to do and be like. 

Accepting the gospel of salvation requires us to see our vast limitations. To make
any sort of commitment to Jesus, we have to see ourselves as the sinners we are;
we have to realize our need to be lifted up and changed by the presence of God in
our lives. We have to call on Him to continue to mold us from what we have been
to what only Jesus and the Holy Spirit of God can make us be.

Once one sees the truth in the mirror, or at least perceives a bit of that reality,
one can go on to submit to the glory and grace of God. He is the King of the
universe, worthy of our worship and praise! He is God, not the God we think He
ought to be, but the artist who created all there was, is or ever will be.

Praise Him!