Being a Mom of three growing, constantly hungry children, I feel like I am always in the grocery store. Today was one of those days. I only had a couple of items to buy, so I decided to take my daughter in her stroller and used the basket on the bottom to hold my items instead of the cart that (lately) she refuses to ride in. That little basket filled up quickly, but everything was packed in neatly and fit perfectly. As I was checking out, I noticed that all my items, that once fit into the small basket so neatly, were never going to fit back into the basket now. My groceries, now all bagged separately, had somehow managed to grow right before my eyes. I grabbed a cart to hold everything. Now I had the stroller and a cart full of groceries, and maneuvering everything to the car was quite a juggling act. Isn't it the same way with us often times? We have all our emotions, dreams, ideas, needs and desires packed so tightly down deep within us. They fit neatly, they don't seem to disturb us and everything is in it's place. Then, when God puts His finger on something deep inside that He wants to pull to the forefront to use, we suddenly realize that after it leaves it's position and He puts His mark on it, it never fits back within us in the same way. Nothing is ever the same after it has been touched by God. We find we need Him to adjust us, enlarge us, to give us a greater capacity to carry that which He wants to use through us. We discover that we must make a shift and grow in Him so that we don't allow those gifts to be left behind due to a lack of capacity on our part. God stretches us and shapes us to be a container of His Spirit, so we can operate in the gifts that He has placed within us. By spending time in His presence, he transforms us to be the vessel He needs us to be. Ironically, one of the ways that God enlarges our capacity is by taking away things that were never really meant to be inside us in the first place. In my basket, I had a few items that were not on my list. Things that I really didn't intend on buying. They were not the purpose of my trip to the store. They took up space that I needed for the actual items on my list. Had I not bought them, I probably would have had enough space to just use the stroller and nothing else. They weren't necessarily bad things, (although those Little Debbie nutty bars are up for debate), but they were just extra things that I wanted to have in the house. When it comes to things in the spirit, we can not afford to waste space or time. We need to be full of the things that are of value in the Kingdom of God. Our vision and mission need to be clear and accurate if we want to be used by God and be effective. We have to be willing to release some things so that we have room to receive other vital things that God wants to be in operation in our lives. We must develop a yielded heart toward the Lord.
For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:14-21
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