This is a good prayer, “Lord, make me over again.”
We might want to pray this prayer from time to time because to be honest, the Lord has to take us to the potter’s house and do a fresh work on us.
Community, we don’t like it when we have to go to the potter’s house. Anytime we have to be re-shaped it is not a pleasant experience.
Being molded, twisted and grinded at the potter’s wheels. Listen this morning when I say sometimes, we have to go there and get a makeover. Let me tell you what a makeover is. A makeover means re-shaping from one thing to another and all of us know what a makeover is in the natural.
A lot of women spend a lot of money getting makeovers. Body makeovers on their nose, cheeks, face, lips, feet, nails, toenails, stomach and other features.
Some don’t like the way they look so they try to look like somebody else. They want a nose like Michael Jackson, a body like Beyoncé, sing like Shirley Caesar or Sandi Patti, lips like Cher or muscles like Mr. Universe.
There are some that do not like who they are and what they are. Some want a physical makeover because they don’t like the way God made them and what they are saying to God is, “You didn’t know what you were doing when you made me.”
Hair makeovers and facelift makeovers; people want to be made over again. People will spend millions of dollars just to be made a certain way. I know that certain physical makeovers are painful yet people will endure them just to get a certain look.
I don’t know how everyone else feels about this for I can only speak for myself but “I love me! And I love the way God made me. Nobody else may like who I am but I love me.”
Some of you reading feel the same way and I will not insult the God that made me by insinuating that I’m not satisfied with the way I am or the way He made me. For all of us are “fearfully and wonderfully made” by our creator, according to Psalms 139:14.
Spiritually, a makeover is just a need to revisit where we came from, to rekindle a fire, the fire that we had when we first received Him.
Sometimes we might need an attitude makeover, an unselfish makeover, a temperance makeover and an obedience makeover.
Community let me tell you all that happens, it’s a about like life.
When we were children living under our parents everything was so good. No bills, creditors, diabetes, high blood pressure, having to work, being fired from the job, drugs, drug and alcohol addictions, stressful relationships with a boy or girl, losing your appetite when your heart is broken, nagging spouse male and female; hassles and responsibilities.
We would just eat, sleep and enjoy life. To those of us that was in a hurry to leave home, the one’s momma and daddy couldn’t tell us anything, now wish that we could do a makeover.
We had it made and didn’t even know it.
Let me tell you about a makeover. For the young people that won’t listen, jail and prison is a makeover. They know how to give you a makeover. Reform school is a makeover, being arrested and having a bad record that follows you the rest of your life is a makeover and young ladies and men having babies when you are not prepared can give you 18 to 24 years of makeover.
Some people have to learn the hard way and then for some, God just has to mold and shape. Due to no fault of our own, God has to mold us from one shape to another so that we can be effective in our service for Him.
Sometimes we become complacent and downright lazy. We cool off in our worship and our praise then when we become complacent, we lose our spiritual vision.
It becomes dull and insensitive to the things of God. We lose our spiritual fire and sharpness, our prayers become weak or token, bible readings become stale except when trouble comes, mid-week service is a no show and Sunday school is out of the question.
God has to take us to the potter’s house. God told Jeremiah the Prophet to go to the potter’s house. He wanted to paint a picture for the nation of Israel. He saw the potter work a work on the wheels. The vessel was marred in the hand of the potter so he made it another vessel as it seemed good to him to make it, according to Jeremiah 18:1-6.
Community, God uses different methods to mold us, He uses our parents, siblings, teachers, pastors, Christians, supervisors, authors and even our enemies.
If we listen, they can help us shape our lives.
My Christian friends, we’re not what we ought to be but thank God we’re not what we used to be.
Our prayer should be, “Lord, work on my mind, so I can think right. Work on my heart, so I can love right. Work on my feet, so I can walk right. Work on my tongue, so I can talk right. Lord, make me over again.”
The Rev. George Ellis is the pastor at Union Grove Missionary Baptist Church.
