TOO MUCH BAGGAGE
Guess what? We’re not perfect
Christians; nobody is. As hard as we may try to be “good,” sometimes we make
mistakes. We have to admit that we’ve messed up. We may even have to admit that
according to what the Bible says, we’ve sinned. Every Christian still sins, and
people sin against us. The best we can do is ask the Lord for forgiveness,
accept it, and move on. The thing is, we CAN change.
When we fly with certain airlines,
we have to pay for extra baggage. It’s the same in our lives—and it costs too
much. So let’s see if we can get rid of some of the baggage we’ve been
carrying. Let’s lighten up our load. We can’t really move forward if we keep
adding to the pile of stuff that we take with us from day to day and year to
year.
So this is what we can do: First,
think about one thing that took you away from being in God’s will this week. I
had one this morning! I have several legal issues to take care of since my mom
passed away. One is to get a special medallion notary. My bank was not
providing that service because of the coronavirus, so I set up an appointment
for tomorrow. The process is a little complicated, but I’m ready. But then
another notary issue came up that required even more paperwork to fill out. I
automatically figured I should do that tomorrow too.
Well, it was a little too much for
my brain to handle. I was trying to take on too much at once. Instead of moving
forward, the extra baggage was stealing my peace, and I felt like I was
swirling in place, immobilized. Growing up, I sometimes felt like I was never
doing enough, and it looks like I’ve carried that idea into adult life, to my
detriment. That over-achieving attitude paralyzed me in my tracks, like the
donkey in the picture above—my feet were going, but I was stuck in place.
Jane had to shake me out of it. She
reminded me that I didn’t have to get it all done in one day! That sounds so
simple, but it was just what I needed—to stop and breath. I had to get rid of
the baggage by looking at the over-achiever thing and vowing to beware of it.
Jane and I call these trigger patterns the “Always and Never” things. Always
beware of them, and Never let them get you going. Well, I let it get me this
time, but I forgave myself, and I’m in God’s peace once again.
Jesus is our savior. We mess up; we
admit it; He picks us up. He forgives us and we forgive us. Done. But how do we
stop from messing up in the same way repeatedly?
We need to ask ourselves: “Why did
I mess up?” “Why did I allow it?” “What is it in me that may have contributed
to bringing this thing to pass?” Once we can see the answer to this “why”
question and we have an understanding of it, we can forgive ourselves and get
healed.
Any mistakes we make are not in our
spirit man—that’s perfect. But mistakes are in our thinking, our emotions, and
our decisions—all soul-related.
God said: “For I will restore
health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds” (Jer. 30:17). There are
no wounds in our spirit, only in our soul. God sent Jesus to earth to show us
how to get our souls healed and drop the baggage that is so hard to drag around
with us. The older we get, the heavier and more cumbersome the bags get.
Paul tells us his deep desire in
Philippians 3:10: “That I may know him [Jesus Christ] and the power of his
resurrection.” The power of the resurrection gives us the power to change
things in our lives.
Second Timothy 2: 24-26 tells us
that when we mess up, we are opposing ourselves and that we are to “awake
ourselves out of the snare of the devil.”
As we start to claim our right to get
rid of old baggage, we will begin to see in our lives where the origins of our
errors came from. It takes some reflection.
Did something make you feel
rejected or not good enough as a child? And do those triggers still come up and
do you react the same way as you did as a child?
Are you still seeking what you lost
a long time ago? Do you feel you have to close the door on your real self in
order to protect and defend yourself?
Did something or someone make you
so angry you did and still do things to hurt yourself or others?
Did you hide in pain killers or
alcohol to protect yourself after a disaster you caused or something else you
saw that you don’t ever want to see again?
There are many things and much
baggage in our lives that can keep us unhappy. But God is willing and able to
free us. God’s Word says we have the miracle resurrection power within us. We
have the ability within us to respond to the truth when we hear it and to
receive the truth from others as well like I did from Jane.
We can have our souls released from
all the extra baggage and once again be at peace with ourselves and the Lord.
Love, Carolyn
EXCITING LIFE STORIES:
No comments:
Post a Comment