Tender

Tender. It's what happens when you let something become beaten with a blunt instrument several times until hard matter turns into moldable, flexible, softer matter. Beaten, as in, there cannot be just one large blow, rather it is the building up of many, many blows over time. That's what I feel like must happen with my heart in order for it to remain tender towards the Lord and his purposes for me.

The thought of clay came to me as I was reflecting on the word, "tender." If I am a lump of clay in the potter's hand, then what happens if I don't allow the potter to shape me? What if I decide to stay on the shelf? I become hard, dried out, without form or purpose. I must allow myself to remain in the potter's expert hands, willing to be pushed, squeezed, smoothed out, and thrown around to achieve what he wants of me. A cup, a bowl, a vase--whatever it may be, if I don't allow his hands to shape me, if I continue to remain a hard lump of clay, I will never achieve the best uses the potter may have for me.

The image of wax also came into my mind. Wax is completely hard when it is cooled. Wax needs a heat source in order to melt and be pliable. I forget that Christ is my heat source, always. He is like a pilot light in my heart. He is always there, but until I make the decision to add fuel to the flame, the light will remain the same; my heart will stay the same.

I want my heart to be pliable like wax. I want to be molded and shaped for His purposes, not mine.

"And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh." Ezekiel 36:26