Treasure in a jar . . .

Ever called someone a crackpot, or been called that? It isn’t such a bad thing! I’m not sure of the origin, but perhaps the term came from this verse:

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. (2 Corinthians 4:7)

It really does not say the jars are cracked or full of holes, but to see the power of what is inside, there has to be some way that treasure can get out! Today’s devotional describes the process . . .

Tozer says that far too many Christians go through the motions of receiving the Holy Spirit — the treasure — by faith, but “show by their continued feebleness that they do not know Him in real power.” He adds that the way to reach that is “the hard way” and not as easy as many might think.

He also says that no one receives the Holy Spirit’s power without knowing it. The Spirit announces Himself to the inner consciousness but also shows the power of God in our lives. In my personal experience, simple faith works, yet there is a greater sense of this treasure being poured out of this earthen jar when all is yielded to God. It goes along with what Jesus called “poor in spirit.”

In my life, most things I do seem easily done without relying on the Spirit of God. I can be a home-maker and many other things in my own strength. However, when God removes or stifles that strength, I discover the treasure and my need for Him.

This week was a treasure hunt. My husband (and a strength for me) is away. My heart is in A-fib. My eye problem came back. To top it off, I was changing a blade in a cutting instrument and it attacked me, flying up like a frisbee and slicing off the top edge of my index finger like peeling a potato. My neighbor came quickly to help stop the profuse bleeding and bind it up. She took me to the medi-center in the morning.

All week, I felt helpless, even though I could still function (slowly and awkwardly), there was a strong need for God’s power. And He kept whispering to me: “My strength is made perfect in weakness.” I know that but feeling like a cracked pot isn’t very much fun. 

Yet it is easier to yield everything to God when I seem to have nothing, or very little. That said, I am aware that the yielding He wants and the filling of the Spirit He gives is not just for times of helplessness. It is for all the time. As Tozer says, “The essential condition of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is to yield everything to God, even the things that in themselves may be harmless.”

This is what it means to be a vessel, cracked or not. It is letting God have His way and letting Him shine in my life. Most of the time I will not be aware because this is not a self-observing thing. It is a God-glorying thing. The surpassing power is His, not mine. And if making me utterly needy works to make it happen, I must accept that!

^^^^^^^^^

Jesus, I’ve noticed some remarkable things this week. One is that when I listen to classical music, my heart calms down. When I am in church and praising You, my heart calms down. The Holy Spirit, Your treasure, lives in there. My eye and my finger are on the mend. You have spare me any pain. I’ve worshiped You. Being settled with what You do with my life, including my body, is a good thing for jars of clay; it releases the Treasure.

Death needed for Light to shine

Echoing what the devotional says today, sin is a sadly common fact of life. No believer in the Bible bragged about his goodness because all of them struggled with sin. It is as Chinese martyr Watchman Nee said — being a Christian is like having two dogs fighting inside. We have two natures within us. One is the new person — righteous because of being united to Jesus Christ. The other is our flesh, the old nature that has a love/hate relationship with sin and both wants to do it, yet longs for freedom from it. However, the flesh is totally unable to do anything against sin. It may try to keep the law of God, but cannot. It is as Paul said:

“For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.” (Romans 7:14–20)

Every Christian knows this battle, but not everyone realizes our war is between flesh and sin, law-keeping and failure. My spiritual victories cannot be won that way. As in salvation, I cannot depend on my flesh-efforts but on the power and sustaining grace of God. The flesh is feeble and weak, yet needs to go one step farther because the only answer is complete deadness. Instead of trying harder, the flesh must yield to death and cease from interfering with the grace that not only saves but sanctifies.

God says, “Let light shine out of darkness.” He has shone in my heart to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But I have this treasure in a jar of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to me. (2 Corinthians 4:6–7)

How can it be? A jar of clay in Bible times was used to transport water, not light. The only way light could be seen through the walls of that jar would be if it were broken, full of holes, generally useless in the ordinary duties of being a jar. Only then can light shine through it.

This fits with what God told Paul. He said His grace was made perfect in weakness. If I am like a cracked and hole-filled jar, I would feel weak, even helpless — and isn’t this what God wants? The jar, the old nature, is the only thing visible to others if it remains unbroken. Only when it is weak and useless for all other purposes, can the light of Jesus Christ shine through to those outside.

^^^^^^^

Jesus, You know how I hate to feel weak. You know that I need to let Your life shine through me and the only way that will happen is when I am broken, yielded, weak, unfit for anything else but bearing Your image. You lived that way, totally relying on the Father, full of grace and truth. I realize that the problem isn’t in being like You, but in resisting Your work in me to so I can let Your light shine. My flesh nature is too alive, too greedy, too hungry for power and control. Help me to stop feeding it and allow it to shrivel and die.

Eternity on my mind

Because of the mind of Christ, those days that are difficult, those times that seem hopeless, and this life that is so fleeting do not bother me, at least as long as I allow His mind to rule my thinking. Jesus has an eternal perspective and is happy to share it with His children. That is, when this life turned against Him, He had His mind on something else and therefore could say, “Not my will but Thine be done.”

The secret of thinking that way is in looking to eternity. The Bible tells me to “run with endurance the race that is set before me, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of my faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despised the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1–2, personalized)

The older I get, the more excited I am at the thought of eternity with God be. However, even without the aging process and the inevitability of dying, there have been tough times where God showed me that having Jesus living in me was a treasure beyond compare. How else could I stay calm in threats to my family? How else could I endure physical pain and close calls to health? How else could I not worry when life became hopeless and I was helpless? It is Jesus, my treasure, who gives victory . . .

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh . . .” (2 Corinthians 4:7–12)

Knowing Jesus and trusting Him means “knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.” When I die, I will live forever with God. I will also share that joy that enabled Jesus to endure the cross. With this secure, then all else is bearable, even seems a small thing. Because of Jesus, life is as the rest of this passage says . . .

“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:16–18)

This is not a pie-in-the-sky faith, nor is it a form of defeatism. It is not an excuse to be uninvolved in life. Rather, having this treasure means death not my enemy, and life is an amazing adventure where I can confidently give it my all knowing that He is with me. Even on those days where my confidence lapses or I worry instead of pray, I still have that deep sense of hope and joy, not because of me, but because of this amazing treasure that lives within.