Empty Clay Pots

"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us." ~ 2 Corinthians 4:7

The phrase "Empty Clay Pots" is a great phrase to describe how Christian ministry ought to be done.

EMPTY

As I shared in my last post, when Jacob had to face his brother, he crossed over the ford of Jabbok. Oftentimes we also have to cross over the ford of Jabbok, the ford of Emptying, in order to be emptied of ourselves. I'm finding out that oftentimes the Lord will allow us to go through a bit of a tough situation in order to develop a keen sense of helplessness, ultimately driving us to a high level of dependence on the Lord. Jacob faced a harrowing situation: the brother whom he had conned out of his birthright and blessing was coming, and there was nothing Jacob could do about it. Jacob was going to have to face him, and he was going to have to trust the Lord to bring him through it.

From our text in 2 Corinthians, we see that we ought to be empty of ourselves and our own sufficiency, so that the power of God and His sufficiency may reside in us. As the Holy Spirit enables, we minister well beyond our own abilities. We must be empty, so that we may be full of Him. As we offer what little we have to Him, He multiplies it (in much the same way He did with the 5 loaves and 2 fish from the little boy) so that we can reach many (and interestingly enough, the leftovers from the 5 fish and 2 loaves that were taken up were more than what they had started with anyway).

CLAY

The idea of a clay pot, or an earthen vessel, is interesting to me. I can remember my mom having some of those clay pots sitting around the front porch at home. The thing about those clay pots was that if you knocked them over, they would break very easily. It gives us a picture of how we really are: incredibly fragile, easily broken. Check out the next verses in 2 Corinthians:

"We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed--" ~ 2 Corinthians 4:8, 9

In engaging in God's work, Paul and his associates were subjected to extreme situations: situations that would break any human being. But these guys recognized Who it was that was carrying them through it all. It was the Lord and no one else...and as such, He was the only one getting the glory.

"--always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you." ~ 2 Corinthians 4:10-12

In their brokenness and despair the Lord was coming through in a mighty way. It's the mystery of the resurrection: through death comes life; that is, the life that Christ Himself provides: true life, life that is no longer subject to weakness, brokenness, and fragility. It's enabling and empowerment beyond human ability.

We ought to recognize that the work to which God calls all of us is spiritual and requires this empowerment beyond human ability. We should never attempt supernatural work through natural means. It's a recipe for disaster.

POTS

As I was thinking about this the other day, doing ministry with the mindset that we are empty clay pots, I kind of chuckled at this part of the idea. A lot of times (at least for me) when we see God using us, our tendency is to get all puffed up and arrogant, saying (at least to ourselves), 'Hey, look how great I am. God is blessing my ministry--I must be something special.' We need to be very intentional about keeping in mind that we are just empty clay pots. There's nothing special about a pot. There's nothing glorious, amazing, or awesome about a pot. We go around thinking to ourselves, "Look at what a cool pot I am." That's dumb. Pots aren't cool, they're just pots.

What is the primary function of a pot? It's empty so that it can hold something else. Curiously enough, oftentimes that very thing is dirt. So we go around thinking things like, "Look at what a cool pot I am. Check out how sweet my dirt is." That's really dumb.

We ought to keep in mind that as we hold that dirt, the only way we can ever amount to anything is if something grows out of that dirt. Yep, the coolest part about a pot are the beautiful flowers that grow out of it; and even then, we really have no part in causing that thing to grow. It all comes from the master Planter, Waterer, and Weeder. It's all about what God wants to do with us empty clay pots, what kind of flowers He wants to plant in us. If we look to Him for these things, it's then that our ministries will grow and flourish. What kind of an incredible garden could God grow if we would just be empty clay pots?

~

WJS