The story is told of two young girls going up to the local water source to collect water for their households. There is an unlimited supply of water and everybody in the community is able to collect as much water as they need, provided it is only one container. Carrying a bucket, one of the girls complained to her friend about the fact that one bucket really wasn’t enough water for her household. Feeling a lack of understanding and sympathy from her companion, the girl confronted her friend: “Don’t you agree with me?”.
Her friend simply said: “If you want more water, bring a bigger container.”
Therefore, if you want more in life, bring a bigger container. A container has a limited capacity so if increase is needed, the container will need to be enlarged.
Eph 3:20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,…”
Our “container” is how much we think (imagine) or ask, which is in accordance with what we actually believe in our hearts, it’s the level of expectation in our hearts (Rom 10:10).
What Ephesians 3:20 is telling us is that no matter how BIG our ASK is, God is able to do more. There is an unlimited supply of what God can do and all of us have access to that power which is “at work in us.”
It is our imagination and belief that is the limit to our container.
If you are not ASKING BIG, your faith needs to be developed. Your “container”, needs to grow.
We grow our faith according to Col 2:7, by being “rooted” and “built up” in the Word of God. As we become established in our faith, God has to retrain our hearts and minds to believe beyond our “container”:
- He retrains our perceptions about ourselves
- He retrains our thinking about His ability
- He instructs us how to overcome the world’s influence and power (1 John 5:3-4) through our faith.
Sometimes we have knowledge of God, His promises and His power, but we have set limits in our minds of what we think He will do in a situation and in our lives. We pray with these limits in mind and fail to remember Eph 3:20. When we enlarge our container we choose to:
- Not be influence by the opinions of the world, but by the Word of God.
- Not be bound up in our former experiences, but be inspired by the Word.
- Not to be influenced by our feelings, but to base our lives on the truth.
- Not to be neutralised by our reasoning, but take action according to the promises of scripture.
- Not to allow what people think and say to super cede what the truth of scripture says.
We limit what God has to offer us, by the “container” we bring.
God is not limited. He is able to do “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.”
We need to stop thinking in the limits of our own mind and allow ourselves to be clothed with the mind of the Spirit through the Word of God (Rom 8:5).
Journal Questions:
- Do you think your life is limited by your thoughts and beliefs about what God can do in your life? What points to that in your life? Go through the points above as you do your evaluation.
- What situations in your life have you “given up” in, because You think it is your lot in life, or fate?
- What dreams, or hopes have you let go because of life experience, situations, feelings and thoughts you have had? This question may be a little hard since we have often long forgotten our dreams. Ask God to help you remember as you meditate on this question.
- Do you think that transformation in what you think and believe could awaken your imagination about what God could do in your life?
- Ask big right now. But, it must be in the will of God and a deep desire of your heart. Write it down and start to imagine what that would be like in your life. Sometimes our imagination needs a kick.
Father, thank you for Your Word. Help me Lord, to think in line with what Your Word says and not within the limits I have put on You, in my mind. Help me to establish greater faith in my heart so that I will increase my capacity to believe. I want to see things beyond my wildest imagination happen in my life. I want to see that which I wouldn’t even have thought about, come about and be able to glorify Your name. Develop in me the mind of the Spirit, so that like Jesus, my thoughts will be your thoughts and my way, Yours. I declare that Your Spirit works within me, power is available to me to live beyond my imagination.
My Faith Journey:
Fact is: I didn’t really believe that God would do the impossible in my life, I just didn’t believe it.
I had lived with a particular situation for so long, that like the lame man living next to the pool for 38 years (John 5:1-15), I had given up that anything would ever change. This thinking had permeated everything about my spiritual life. Eph 3:20-21 our key verse, challenged my thinking and beliefs. Did I believe that God could do immeasurably more? Did I have a vision for my faith?
Where is your faith vision?
In 1 Sam 11:1-11 Nahash the Amonite was an enemy of Gods’ people. He wanted to gouge out the right eye of God’s people. Your right eye is what you used to peep over your shield to see what the enemy is doing. He was asking the people to surrender their vision of what the enemy was doing to allow an upper hand in battle. Our enemy will try and get us to surrender our faith vision. We may have the strongest shield of faith and a mighty sword of the the Word (Eph 6:10-18), but without a faith vision we are neutralized in a spiritual war. The right eye is the long distance eye, we use it to get over obstacles. The left eye is for reading. The right eye keeps the vision in front of you and it is not lost on obstacles.
A faith vision is not just goals, it is:
- a forward sight into the future, an overall purpose, a big picture, whereas goals are more specific
- the inspiration that inspires us to set goals and pray faith based prayers
- the overall God purpose, whereas goals are the building blocks to a purpose
I had to admit that I did not have much vision for my life.
