Jars of Clay

                I’ve prayed a lot recently about wanting to understand the “riches that are in Christ” or our “inheritance that is in Christ”. I’ve prayed many prayers lately modeled after the following verses,

“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints” Ephesians 1:18

“To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:27

I sat at Church the other night and began to think about these verses and the Lord began speaking to me about how valuable our relationship with Christ is and how awesome it is to have the opportunity to commune with Christ and the divine life that is in him.

Lately I’ve been on this journey to constantly live by divine life, because Jesus himself said that apart from him we can do nothing, John 15:5. But recently the Lord has challenged me to draw ALL my strength from him even for situations that look easy. Scripture says in numerous places to not put confidence in the flesh. The moment we put confidence in what we can do, it sets us up for failure, maybe not immediately but somewhere down the road.

Last night I was meditating on all of this and I came to 2 Corinthians 4:7 “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” As I read it I just began to reflect on how fragile our life in this fleshly existence is. I reflected also on how our strength is still weak in comparison to what we have available in Christ.

I was humbled very much when I truly reckoned myself to be a jar of clay, I know that sometimes I have never really seen myself as a mortal strengthened by divine life but more so at times I saw myself as a vessel of steel and used divine life, Jesus’s strength, as a plan B, meaning I put a lot of confidence in my flesh and what I could accomplish. Many of us do it and only very few of us see it that way and even fewer are willing to admit it. A large majority of us Believers treat the Glorious riches that we have in Christ as an emergency power supply, as did I.

If we could truly understand the battle we stand in and what wages war against our souls we would see that the emergency is now and your strength and will is of no power or effect. That you must be vigilant at all times because your enemy is looking for the moment to overcome you. But we have no reason to fear because our Lord leads us into Victory by his life giving spirit.  Once we can see ourselves as those jars of clay and that we truly can do nothing apart from him it puts us in a position to truly appreciate the treasure that we have been given. Its then, that we are able to put great value on what we have obtained in Christ.

Its then we join the Apostle Paul when he stated to the Philippians “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Phil 3:8.

Truly brethren, it is not until we reckon ourselves weak that we become strong. When we reckon our power and strength obsolete and our ways futile, then we open the way for Christ’s power to flow through us.

                “But he 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 of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Cor 12:9-10