About Clayheart

Outpourings from an imperfect but redeemed & treasured heart of clay.

Right now, Clayheart is just an online journal (blog). I’m hoping it’ll eventually become something more than that, but we’ll just have to wait and see where the Lord takes this! Thanks for visiting and I hope the Lord can use this journal in some way to draw you closer to Him. :)

What does the term “clay heart” mean?

I’ve considered this for quite a few years now, from the time the phrase was given to me by the Lord when it just kinda popped into my head. I’ve grown to realize that it is an ongoing process and lifelong – this heart of clay.

Let me explain some of the meaning behind this phrase and having a clay heart…

Firstly, we all have a heart of clay.

Think about it:
We were formed from the dust.

The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. – Genesis 2:7

The Lord is our potter, and we are the clay.

Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. – Isaiah 64:8

Since we are formed from the dust and we are the clay, while the Lord is our potter, we can look at the symbolism of this and understand what “Clay Heart” means.

As I thought more and more about it, I realized that clay can take on different properties:

  • Clay can easily dry out if not properly cared for.
  • If heated or fired in a kiln or oven, clay becomes hard.
  • When kept moist, clay maintains its ability to be molded. In a way it is considered “soft”.

Now this may seem like a silly comparison to a heart, but I still found it interesting how it parallels. Perhaps I’m the only one who sees a heart in this way, but try to take on this perspective and humor me for a bit.

Just as clay can easily dry out – if a heart is not properly cared for, it can dry out too and become brittle. If the Lord does not hold our heart, then the world can easily dry it out. Hurts from other people who do not cherish or properly care for another’s heart can cause this drying out or brittleness. When people abandon you, reject you, or leave you, you can feel this dryness. Once dried, our hearts grow bitter towards those around us, and we lose so much – very little can satisfy when our hearts are dry.

When clay is heated or “fired”, it becomes hard. Our hearts can become just as hard. Similar to the “dryness” I mentioned in the above paragraph. When life circumstances, hurts, trials, or suffering – these “fires” can cause our hearts to become hard. Once something is hardened, you cannot make it soft again. But it is easy to break hardened clay, and leave it in many pieces. In order to redeem a heart that is hardened in this clay property, I’ve observed (and experienced) that God has to break this to make the heart new and soft again.

When clay is kept moist or soft, it can be molded into something beautiful. This is the property our heart should stay in. Our hearts can be kept soft and moistened by our Creator, King, Father, Lover, and Friend. When He possesses our heart, He will always take proper care of it. He can mold it into something beautiful. A clay heart can be kept moist by just being with and in Jesus.

So which property of clay is your heart?

Often times, I notice mine is a mixture of the 3… sometimes dryer is some areas than others, sometimes hard in another, and soft in the areas that God holds and molds. It’s an ongoing process to stay “soft” in His hands, so that at the proper time – when we meet face-to-face, the molding He created is a beautiful bride. Let Jesus remove those dry and hard clay spots… and if you’re all dry, go soak in the Father… and if you’re all hard, go be broken before Him so he can piece you back together and make you new as soft clay.

The verse that explains what this journey is about in the best possible way is this:

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 God’s glory displayed 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.

– 2 Corinthians 4:6-7

When we accept and pursue Jesus Christ, we have been given a light to shine within our hearts, a treasure, even though we are but clay vessels (clay jars). We are weak vessels made of dirt/dust, but by God giving us this treasure, Christ, He can receive the glory and can show that the light within is us an all-surpassing power from Him and not from us.

This site is mostly just to share the ongoing process of a clay heart, and share some of what the Lord is doing within my own heart and life – or simply things that He shows me in His Word, times we spend together, or experiences He brings me through. What I write doesn’t always come out making perfect sense, or pretty, or gentle… it’s just my personal journey and pursuit of my One True and First Love, Jesus.  I’m not a super-spiritual person, I’m just in love with the Man who redeemed my heart and soul and I daily want to deny myself, take up my cross, and follow Him. He holds this fragile, sinful, clay heart of mine.

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