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What Shape Is Your Pumpkin?

A farmer once went to the county fair with a pumpkin that was the exact shape and size of a two-gallon jug. It was so unusual that his pumpkin won the blue ribbon.

When asked how he got a pumpkin to grow like that, the farmer replied, "It was easy. As soon as it started to grow, I stuck it inside a two-gallon jug."

If your faith was a thing you could hold in your hand, and you had put it into a container when it was still very, very small, what would it look like now? What shape would it have taken by now?

Is it the shape of an aspirin bottle? A fifty-gallon drum? As you've seen challenges to your faith, you were able to believe in the promises of God--at least to a point. Then came the day when you were challenged beyond the capacity even of the fifty-gallon drum. Your faith had gone as far as it could.

Here's a better comparison: your faith may be the exact shape and size of an egg. And when that faith began to develop and expand, you soon found that eggshell too confining. You stretched and opened yourself to the bright and glorious promises of God. As you grew, you discovered that shell was too fragil to hold your faith inside. The eggshell cracked open and your faith continues to grow, without being restrained by any container.

We must go beyond positive thinking and self-reinforcement. Is your faith confined to imaginary container, or is it free to roam and explore the blessings of God?

--Rocky Henriques, www.timothyreport.com