When I first became a Christian, I thought my zeal would last a lifetime. But a few years later, as a missionary, wife, and mother, I had become a nerve-wracked, resentful, and doubting person. Having received Christ's good news for lost sinners at my conversion, I felt ashamed to long for more good news.

Then I read Jeremiah 18, and the Lord showed me that He still has good news for saved sinners like me. Our messed-up lives, like marred clay, can be refashioned if placed humbly in the Potter's hand.

Years later, I was attending a conference for Christian workers where Bible teacher Alan Redpath was speaking. His words reminded me of that new beginning. "I can't prove this by one particular verse," he said, "but I have a conviction supported by the entire Bible that God's great mercy to the unsaved is surpassed only by His mercy to the saved." At that moment, with years of God's mercy behind me, my spirit bore joyful witness to that truth. I realized that God's mercy is for Christians too!

Bring God your failures and receive His forgiveness now as freely as when you first believed. Your great Potter still loves you and longs to remake you.  — Joanie Yoder