Our Glory is our Hope

4 Therefore, among God's churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.

10 on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.

12 We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Thess 1:4,10,12

Yesterday in our Bible Study as we read these verses and those in between, I pictured a host of believers across the sky with scars and cracks and holes with glory shining out of us. All who were not a part of Christ were looking and marveling at our likeness to Jesus and our oneness with Jesus.

A potter demonstrated creating a pot at a workshop I once attended. She threw the lump of clay on the wheel, added water and spun it around-fast. She proceeded in molding it, pressing it, cutting away excess, squishing it, molding it again, adding water, and sometimes even cutting the whole thing back and remolding it. All I could think of when watching her, was "OUCH"!! I could relate to the Potter's hand on my life at times.

Then she went on to talk about the intense heat of the firing of the clay to set it into a vessel.

Along with this memory came a meaningful passage to me...
For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
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. 2 Cor 4:6-9

The demonstration of the potter along with these passages of scripture gives an understanding of the blessings of the trials, and discipline we go through as children of God. The molding and shaping and pruning that He does in our lives enables His glory to be more evident in us.

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Cor 4:17-18

Herein lies our ability to weather any storm that comes our way...keeping our eyes fixed on the return of our Savior, and the glory that will be revealed on that day!

Jesus is our hope of glory! Let us continue to yield to the Potter's Hand. Trusting.
Hoping. Fixing our eyes on the eternal and on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith.

Heavenly Father, wise and loving Potter, give us the grace to trust you no matter what and keep in mind that this isn't it...eternity is. Fill us with your glory and hope! amen.