It’s easy to get stuck in life and think that we’ve gone as far as we can, that we can’t break an addiction or get well. What’s holding us back many times is our own thinking. Jesus says, “No one puts new wine into old wineskins” (Mark 2:22). When a wineskin gets old, the leather hardens. If you put new wine in it, the wine expands and bursts it. Jesus is saying, “You can’t have a new life with old thinking.” If you think you’ve reached your limits, you have. If you think the problem is too big, then it is. It’s not that God doesn’t have blessings, favor, and increase. It’s that you have to get a new mindset.
In 2 Kings 4, the creditors were coming to take a poor widow’s two sons as the payment for her bills. All she had of value was a small jar of oil. The prophet Elisha told her to ask her neighbors for empty jars. He specifically said, “Don’t ask for just a few. Get as many as you can.” When she poured her oil in them, it kept flowing until all the jars were full. She was able to sell the oil and had plenty of money to pay her debts.
The principle is that God is going to fill all the containers you bring Him. That widow determined how much oil she was going to have. It wasn't a supply problem; it was a capacity problem. The oil only ran out when she didn’t have any more containers. Too often we let disappointments, delays, and things that haven’t worked out lower our expectations. We’re not stretching, not believing for great things. Are you putting limits on what God wants to do in your life? Are you focused on what you think can happen only in your ability? God has an unlimited supply for all your needs. Don’t base your containers on what you can do; base them on what God can do.
You’re not limited by your circumstances, by your boss, by how you were raised. One touch of God’s favor will catapult you ahead. God turned David, a shepherd boy, into a king. He gave Abraham and Sarah a baby when they were almost a hundred years old. He gave us the Compaq Center when all the odds were against us. He has things in your future that will amaze you. The apostle Paul says, “That in the ages to come He might show the surpassing greatness of God’s favor” (Ephesians 2:7). God has “far-and-beyond favor” for you. Don’t let limited thinking keep God from pouring out the fullness of what He has for you. Have a new mindset. Start believing bigger, dreaming bigger, expecting bigger.