January 18

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life. — Eph 2:10 BSB

Consider what is said of those who are saved by grace through faith—they are God’s “workmanship,” the result of His creative hand. Everything we are and everything we have that is spiritual and acceptable to God is owed to the special operation of His power. There is not a single thought in our heart, word from our lips, or work from our hands that is truly holy, heavenly, simple, sincere, glorifying to God, or beneficial to others, that does not come from His Spirit and grace as the direct and immediate source. How beautifully the church of old expressed this, and how it resonates in every gracious heart: “But now, O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are our potter; we are all the work of Your hand” (Isaiah 64:8).

How fitting is the picture of the clay and the potter. Look at the moist clay under the potter’s hand—how soft, tender, and passive it is. How strong and skillful are the hands that shape it. As the wheel turns, every movement of the potter’s fingers shapes the yielding clay, and with exquisite skill, every gentle touch and imperceptible motion gives it the exact form that the potter had in mind. Just as divine sovereignty first chose the clay, so too does divine sovereignty shape it into the form it was meant to take.