Jars of clay


If you are a regular reader (yes, all 3 of you), you will have noticed that I haven't updated this website for 3 weeks! It's been absolutely hectic at work with full-year results and board meetings coming up, and this all comes on the back of ECA (not Extra-Curricular Activity, but Especially Critical Activity!) like the upcoming office volunteer event which the office fellowship is spearheading, and a nascent church cell which I am learning to lead, and more importantly, love.

2 Corinthians 4:7-11 says:

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body."

My work at the office, at home and in church, and having to be excellent in all of these areas is really really challenging. So much so that I even dream about my work! So I have felt hard pressed and certainly perplexed (!) but His encouragement is that, whatever life throws at me, I will not be crushed, never in despair, never abandoned, never destroyed.

It is at times like these past few weeks, when I am glad to remember that I am only a jar of clay, but that this poor vessel truly contains treasure - not mine, but the all-surpassing power of God.

DL Moody, the 19th century evangelist, once said that Moses, the most humble of men, spent the first 40 years of his life thinking he was somebody (the son of the pharoah's daughter), the next 40 years thinking he was nobody (a shepherd in Midian) and the next 40 years learning what God can do with a nobody (leading the Israelites out of Egypt)!

I rejoice that God continues to teach this clay vessel what He can do with a nobody, and even better, demonstrate this truth to my world! As Paul says later in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, "But [Jesus] said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For WHEN I AM WEAK, THEN I AM STRONG."

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