Are You Over the Limit on Your Baggage
Or Have Just Enough for Daily Carry-On?
Have you noticed that over the years you are charged more and more for bringing excess baggage on your journey? Have you seen travelers feverishly trying to jam more baggage into carry-on compartments? Perhaps you yourself have attempted to lug excess baggage with you from location to location. Not only is it costly but all that extra weight is quite cumbersome.
The Clutter of Things
Each of us carries baggage through our life. Perhaps you simply have too many things cluttering up your space. As this year winds down, consider donating what you do not use or need to charity. Too many ‘things’ not only clutter your physical environment but also your spiritual one. God is a God of order and when your surroundings are in order you are better equipped to hear Him.
When you hear Him you are able to make God-directed decisions that impact your destiny in Him ‘for such a time as this.’
What Is In Your Bags?
In addition to physical clutter, do you carry emotional baggage? Every one of us has baggage that weighs down our journey. Some baggage is colorful, some has intricate pattern and some simply remains buried in a brown paper wrapper. Whatever the size, shape, uniqueness of your baggage now is the time to go through it and let it go. Perhaps your bags contain the residue of emotional, physical or sexual abuse. Perhaps rejection fills your bags to overflow. Perhaps addiction weighs you down. Perhaps unconfessed sin haunts you. We each have baggage to release.
If you choose to hold tight to your baggage you will trip over it time and time again. It will loom and invade every association you have. Relationships with your family, friends, work and neighbors will be affected by the enormity of the emotional weight you hold onto. Your spiritual life will suffer as baggage gets heavier the longer it is carried. As the weight increases your ability to focus on anything else is diminished. Your concentration, whether conscious or subconscious, becomes centered on the issues contained in your baggage. Those issues long since passed cast a dark shadow on your present and the loom of doom in your future. The enemy would like nothing better than to kill, steal and destroy your joy and your peace. Do not allow that one more day.
Lighten Your Load
Think about what may be filling up your baggage. Always remember that Jesus Christ died to set you free from sin and the negativity of your past.
He died that you might have life more abundantly. That abundance includes a spirit free from the oppression of the past. That abundance includes a spirit free to follow Him and step away from the baggage loaded upon you by the world or by your own past choices. By His grace you can clear away your baggage and walk forward free.
Is it easy to just leave the baggage behind? No, but it is possible with His grace and the help of the Holy Spirit sent to counsel and guide you. If your baggage is too heavy or too intense to look at alone, seek wise counsel. Whatever the case, determine to be set free so you can live the rest of your life unencumbered by the dearth of the past.
Remember, each of us has baggage. You do not have to continue to trip over yours. Make a decision today to do whatever is necessary to clean out your baggage. Life happens daily and you need not carry the weight of past years into each new day.
Let Him make all things new in your life! May God bless you and heal every crooked place in Jesus ‘name. Amen and amen.
Quotes To Ponder This Week
“No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” ~Jesus, Luke 9:62
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” ~Jesus, John 10:10
“However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.” ~Jesus, John 16:13
“Behold, I make all things new.” ~Jesus, Revelation 21:5
“As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” ~Psalm 103:12
“Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” ~Lamentations 3:22-23
A Prayer Request
Thank you for your continued faithfulness to pray. Please keep all who serve our country, our diplomatic corps, our servicemen and women and their families in prayer for salvation and safety. They are our front-line on the battlefield, let us be their front-line in the spirit. Also, let us cover all who have come home wounded that they and their families will receive the kindness, help and support they need to go forward in their lives. May the Lord bless them and keep them safe.
Pray for all throughout the world for hedges of protection against radical Muslim extremists and all forms of terrorism. We have long prayed for spiritual victory over radical Islam in Esther’s Warriors Ministry. We now see the reality of this threat come to the forefront in this time in world history.
Please pray for all in authority over us, for the full truth to come forth concerning Benghazi. We as Americans and the families of those murdered in Benghazi deserve to be told the truth. Pray that God will open doors to let the truth on all that has been hidden flow for all of us in this United States of America! The truth shall keep us free.
Pray for peace in Israel. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Pray for Christians throughout the world who face violence and death for their faith.
May God richly bless the United States of America, bring to light every single crooked place and keep her safe. May we arise united once again as One Nation Under God in this auspicious season in our country’s history. We continue to pray for truth to prevail as we saturate this country in prayer and stand for all that is right in America and for all of us who call ourselves American. These are treacherous times and now more than ever we must maintain our walk. Fail not in this hour. #Pray for America.
Please Join Me in Prayer
Father God, We thank You for sending Your Son, Jesus Christ, to set us free. Grace us through the power of Your Holy Spirit to release any hindering thing that has kept us from the fullness You have for us. Empower us to walk free in the newness of each day that You give us. Keep our focus ever on You. Great is Your faithfulness, oh God! We thank You that You keep Your hand on America. Forgive our sin and heal our land that we will remain One Nation Under God. We pray this in Jesus’ mighty name. Amen and Amen.