Don’t give up

In the 18th chapter of the Book of Jeremiah, we find these words: “The Lord spoke to Jeremiah and He said, Go to the potter ’s house.

There I will give you my message.” So Jeremiah went to the potter’s house, and there the potter was working at his wheel, molding a piece of clay into the kind of clay pot he wanted to make. Whenever the clay pot he was working on was ruined, the potter would rework it into a new clay pot, the way he wanted to make it.

As Jeremiah was watching the potter working on this piece of clay, the Lord spoke to him and said, “Give this word to the people of Israel. O My people, can’t I do with you as the potter does with his clay? When the clay he is working on becomes mared, he remolds it into the pottery he wants to make. As the clay is in the hands of the potter, so are you, O Israel, in My hands.”

This Sunday morning, I had the privilege and joy of speaking once again to the people of the Streetman Baptist Church. One of the things that I look forward to in speaking to this church is when the song director tells one of his many wonderful stories.

I don’t know where he gets them all, but each one is a wonderful lesson about life itself, and how the Lord is with us to help us to live for Him.

This morning he told the story of a concert that was being played by the great and well known piano master, Paderwhiski. The hall was filled with people waiting to hear his wonderful concert.

One mother had brought her 10 year old son, who was taking piano lessons as a beginner, hoping to inspire him also to become a great concert pianist. When it was time for Paderewski to come out, she looked around and saw that her son was missing.

When the curtain opened up, there to her horror, was her 10 year old little boy, sitting at this magnificent Steinway Piano, playing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”! He had just learned how to play that song the week before this concert.

You can imagine her horror and her embarrassment as there upon that stage, at the piano of the great Paderewski, sat her young little boy, playing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”. Well, the audience started laughing and she started sinking well into her seat.

Suddenly, Paderewski walked out onto the stage and whispered into the little boy’s ear, “Don’t Quit”, and with his left hand he reached around the little boy to his left and played a bass accompaniment. Then with his right hand, he reached around to the right of the little boy and played a treble accompaniment on the higher keys.

All of a sudden, instead of laughing, the audience listened raptly as the master made this little boy’s simple song into a beautiful masterpiece, one like the audience had never heard before.

In fact, most of the audience didn’t even remember what Paderewski played, only what he did to accompany this little boy as he played, “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”.

The song director then said, “Like this little boy, there are times when we start something in life, but when we mess it up, or want to change because we don’t think that what we are doing is “good enough”, God puts his arms around us and says, “Don’t Quit, I’m going to help you get it done.”

Do you sometimes feel like giving up because you are embarrassed or think that what you are doing is not quite “good enough”? God comes to you and says, “Don’t give up. Don’t quit. I am here with you to get your task done.”

Then one day when we stand before God in Heaven, He will say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”

So, don’t give up when you think that what you are doing is simply, “not good enough.”

As the clay is in the potter’s hands, so are you in the hands of the Master Maker, God Himself.

He is here to help you.