It is well-known that elephants used in circuses or as a means of transport throughout Asia learn to accept the shackles of captivity. A single metal chain wrapped around one foot and fastened to a tiny stake holds them in place. The ten-foot-tall, eleven thousand-pound hulks could easily snap the chain, uproot the stake, and escape to freedom. But they don’t. In fact, they don’t even try. The world’s most powerful animal is agile enough to pick up a blade of grass with its trunk and knock down a tree as easily as you and I can snap a toothpick, yet they remain tied down by a small peg and a flimsy chain. Why?
The answer has everything to do with how elephants are raised. When they are young, their trainers tie them up; at that age, they try to break free without success. In adulthood, the chain can no longer restrict them, but the self-imposed limit in their mind is as powerful as any cage. Eventually, the trainer gets the elephants to accept their chains, and for most of them, that’s the end of the story.
Elephant chains provide an apt analogy for our lives. Limiting beliefs keep us bound to unhealthy ways of living. But there is One who came to help us throw off our shackles and lose our limiting beliefs so we can pursue a life of unlimited purpose. He is the God of no limits!
The Apostle Paul declared God can do “exceedingly,” or more than, “abundantly,” or much more than, “above all”! (Ephesians 3:20.) He is the God of superabundance.
Because of God’s capability, He can do all. Because of God’s capacity, He can do above all. With God, “Who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,” why not believe for more? Let’s take the limits off our faith!
