Daily devotion – Earthen vessels
Act 17:24 “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.
Our Lord is the Creator of all things. Paul said the Lord is too big for any singular temple or any carved altar no matter how beautiful or impressive it might appear.
In Exodus 20, the Lord said…. 24 An altar of earth you shall make for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I record My name I will come to you, and I will bless you. 25 And if you make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone; for if you use your tool on it, you have profaned it.
In other words God said, “If you build Me an altar, make it very simple – preferably of dirt. If you use rock, don’t carve it or polish it. Keep it simple so that the attention of the people will remain focused on Me instead of the ornate structure of the altar.”
God makes it so simple for us and clear what He desires. It give us great hope because we want our lives to be used by the Lord. But we are well aware of our plainness, our earthiness. I know that I am not very polished! Yet too sometimes we think we are just not ‘cut out’ to do great things for God because of our ordinariness.
Yet according to Exodus 20, it these very doubts that make such a person eminently qualified! Paul said, 2Co 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. (earthen vessels)
We are not fancy vases, we are just plain ordinary containers, boasting not of our exterior, but of Whom we have within. If you don’t feel capable to share, witness, teach or minister, you are an ideal candidate because God will get all the glory, not you, as you serve Him with all your heart!