Clay Jars

I once owned a small terra cotta jar with a cork for a lid. I would pour scented oils into the jar and cork the jar.

By the next day the oil would have permeated the porous jar and scented the entire room.

That was the purpose of the jar, to be used as an air freshener. Everyone could smell it but no one really noticed the little terra cotta jar.

It worked really well and because of the strong smell of the fragrance, other unpleasant odors went unnoticed.

If I had wanted to contain and save the oil, I would have kept it in the original glass bottle in which it came. But for the product to work as intended it had to be put into the clay pot.

God works like that inside of us. We are clay pots. He is inside of us. Because we are weak (porous,) His power fills us and seeps into us and out of us. Everyone around us will be aware of God.

We can be so filled with God that people hardly notice us at all, only the Power that we have inside. Because of God in us, the unpleasantness of this life can be overcome.

We are like clay jars in which this treasure is stored. The real power comes from God and not from us. 

We often suffer, but we are never crushed.

 Even when we don't know what to do, we never give up.

 In times of trouble, God is with us, and when we are knocked down, we get up again. 

We face death every day because of Jesus. Our bodies show what his death was like, so his life can also be seen in us. (2 Corinthians 4:7-11 CEV)

You can be a glass bottle, filled with God but your lid screwed on tight with no way for His essence to permeate and be known by many; or you can be a jar of clay. 

I pray you choose to be a clay jar. Share what you contain.

But having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, "I believed, therefore I spoke," we also believe, therefore we also speak, (2 Corinthians 4:13 NASB)