Jeremiah 18:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD saying, 2 “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will announce My words to you.” 3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the wheel. 4 But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make. 5 Then the word of the LORD came to me saying, 6 “Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?” declares the LORD. “Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.”
The Old Testament sacrificial system pointed to Christ, but also to those who are to be like Christ. It was Christ who offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice, but His people are to be living sacrifices (Rom 12:1-2). Christ, who is the very life of His people, lives His life in them and works in them to be living sacrifices that grow out of His perfect sacrifice. The sacrifice of His people, then, is not something they can boast about and it is not about works that they can obtain merit through.
The only sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken and contrite heart. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise” (Psa 51:17). No human can ever sacrifice self or anything that can be obtained by a human and expect God to accept it apart from a broken and contrite heart. It is not the amount or the quality that God looks at, but He looks at the heart. A humbled heart which is one that is broken and contrite is a heart that is full of Christ and so God sees His own perfect image as He beholds the true believer. It is the believer that is united to Christ and as such is a broken and contrite heart that manifests the glory of God in what the believer does, and it is this way because it is Christ shining through the believer.
The word “sacrifice” in our text does not teach us to go out and do things that are costly or perhaps cause us pain, but instead it teaches us to be completely and totally given over to God. The sacrifices in the Old Testament were not costly to the people in one sense, but the sacrifice was a total giving over of the animal to the purposes of God. The life of the animal was His and all the parts of the animal were His to do with as He pleased. In other words, if we look at a sacrifice as an utter and irrevocable giving over to the purposes of God, we can see how the sacrifice of Christ pleased God. We can also see what it means to be a living sacrifice which is part of what it means for a human being to seek to be clay in the hands of the Divine Potter. The clay is in the hands of the Potter and it is totally given over for His purposes. The broken and contrite heart is a heart that is totally given over for the purposes of God as well. This is another reason why the Lord loves the true sacrifice.
When we think of what a broken heart is, the teaching of John Bunyan on this subject comes to mind. He taught that we can learn much about a broken heart from thinking of a broken leg. When a leg is broken (a compound fracture), it has no ability to support any weight on it. It is basically a helpless limb and cannot help a person with anything. So a heart that is broken is a heart that realizes how weak and helpless it is before the living God. A broken heart sees that it is utterly unable to do anything, but instead it must lean on another. As such we can see the clay in the hands of the Potter. The clay has no ability and no strength to do what the Potter wants, but instead the clay must be clay (helpless and without strength) so that it can be molded into an instrument that the Potter desires.
When we think of what the concept of sacrifice has to do with prayer, it should be obvious that we are to come to God (Divine Potter) and present ourselves to Him as totally given over and an irrevocable giving over when we come to pray. We come before the living God without any rights and without any strength. We come before the living God to be dispensed with as He sees fit. We come before the living God to seek Him for strength, for wisdom, and for understanding that His glory would shine through us. When we come before the living God to pray, we come asking for hearts to love and desire for His name to be honored and glorified, because we cannot work those things up from our proud selves. In order to do what He commands we must have Him work those things in us. For us to pray as Jesus taught us to pray, we have to seek Him for true love and desires to seek Him for those things. We are truly helpless in prayer and in all things. A lump of clay is a good description, though even that does not take into account our sin.
God Loves... Himself 
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