IS YOUR BASKET TOO SMALL?

We walked into the grocery store on Thanksgiving afternoon to pick up a few last minute items to take to the family dinner. Once inside, my husband asked, "Do you think we need a basket?" "Probably," I replied, "we have to get drinks and a few other things." I started walking toward the aisle, while he headed out to get a basket. All of a sudden I hear a loud clanking and rattling sound moving quickly toward me. I turned around to see my husband hunched over the tiniest basket...you know...the kind that the grocery store sets out for little kids to push and shop along side their parents. I started cracking up and said, "What are you doing?" He curiously looked at me and said, "You said we only needed a few things so I though this was the perfect size." I continued to laugh and said, "That's a kids basket!" He didn't seem to care and it made total sense to him, (a few items=a small basket.)

People laughed as he passed by and turned around to stare at the tough looking guy pushing the kiddy basket around the store. We continued to shop as I tried to stay quite a distance in front of him to let it appear as if he was shopping alone. Everything fit inside his little basket perfectly until he grabbed the last item, a large case of water bottles. He had to balance them across the top and carefully hold it as we headed toward the checkout line...passing the smiling onlookers.

In the beginning the basket seemed like the perfect size for the minimal items, but ended up being too small. Your life can be like that tiny basket. You may be limiting the Lord through doubt and self-defeating, destructive thoughts. Your basket of faith and trust may be too small. The negative things you are saying about yourself and others may be hindering the growth in your life.

The Lord has an abundance of blessings and love He wants to shower on you, He is your Heavenly Father. Are you allowing Him enough room to fill up your "basket"? Are you willing to seek a relationship with Jesus Christ through prayer and daily scripture study, allowing Him to renew your mind, body and spirit? Start speaking the life giving words of the scriptures over your life and all those you come in contact with. Ask yourself today, "Is my basket too small?" Don't limit the things the Lord has prepared for you.

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." Jeremiah 29:11

"For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;" 2 Corinthians 10:4-5

" In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul." Psalm 94:19

"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you." Philiippians 4:8-9

THE DOOR

Story By: Lisa Petrarca

I sat, locked away, wondering how to open the door. A prisoner behind a wooden fortress. Each day spent frantically searching for a way out. By nightfall, completely worn out. I knew that if I could open the door, everything would be better in my life. All the anger, hurt and frustration would be gone. On the other side, I would find the answer, happiness would finally be a part of me. Pounding, pushing hitting only produced deep rivets in the wood, but it wouldn't give.

My sins had trapped me here. My past haunting me, searching to find freedom on the other side. My mental focus on that door. Years past, the days spent consumed with the door, now deeply scarred, chunks ripped out, exposing lighter wood and splinters. My hands torn and bloody, my soul still longing to be free. Breathless and exhausted, the time spent looking at my captor, my burden, had taken its toll.

No more! Throwing myself to the floor, tightly curled in a fetal position, crying from the pit of my stomach, gasping for air, unable to look at that door. I cried out to God to save me. This was the first time I had thought of anything but the door. I cried over and over, "Please release me from this prison. I have tried to get out...I have nothing left, I give up, I can't look at it for another minute."

The Lord replied, "My child, that door represents your sin. You have focused on it for far too long, keeping you away from all that I have for you. Your past has held you prisoner. It has kept you away from Me. You were too blinded by sin to see the other door. My door...which I provided for you, through my only begotten son, Jesus Christ. He provided the key. Through His sacrifice you no longer need to look at the door of your sins. You are forgiven, My door is open...YOU ARE FREE."

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened." Matthew 7:7,8

Don't continue to let your sin keep you away from a relationship with your Heavenly Father. Stop spending so much time focusing on it and ask the Lord to set you free!