It’s fastapproaching that time of year again when many of us will be jetting off todestinations all around the world to enjoy a well earned break. If that’s you,I really hope you have great time and that you come back refreshed and readyfor any challenges that may lie ahead for you.
I often find theactual getting there to be quite stressful! Ensuring you get to the airport ontime, getting the car parked in the right place, getting to the check in deskon time and getting to the right gate for your flight can often seem reallyhard work. I have to say though, the holiday feels it’s really begun when youget checked in and most importantly you get to drop your baggage off. You turnaway from the check in desk and that’s it – just the plane to get on and then aperiod of fun and relaxation. Of course, it does get a little bit stressfulagain when you’re waiting to pick up your baggage at the other end – there’salways the fear that your baggage won’t have made the plane and that you’llspend the first few days of your holiday with nothing to wear! Thankfully, forthe bulk of us, it’s not a problem and our baggage is ready to collect when itcomes round the belt in baggage reclaim.
I believe that whenwe come in to relationship with God, a similar thing can occur. God wants us tocheck in our baggage at the start of the journey that may have weighed down ourlives up until this point. He wants us to handover the things that may haveblighted our lives previously in order that we can live our lives in freedomwith him. Living freely is one of the most amazing things that can beexperienced but sadly for many people, they do not allow it to last. Theproblem is that on too many occasions, we head for baggage reclaim when we haveabsolutely no need to do so! Contrary to when we go on holiday, when we checkin with God, we check in our baggage as we should do but then we should neverfeel we have to pick it up again. With God, we live in complete freedom andnothing that we have handed over to him should ever be picked up again! All ourstrength and courage is found in him alone.
Living in Freedomis available to any one of us who wants it. We just need to hand everythingover to God and allow him to take control. Why not come along to SBC thisSunday at 10am and find out more about Living in Freedom?
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ReplyDeleteThis article is very true but not as simple as it seems. When I became a Christian at 19 years old (36 years ago) I had alot of "emotional" baggage that remained. Becoming free was a step by step journey with the help of Christ, prayer and counselling.
ReplyDeleteI longed to be free but sometimes God requires that our emotions are healed and does not instantly remove all our "baggage" away. We become free people in Christ - but it is a journey.
36 years on I have left most of my baggage behind but daily I need to give Christ some more. There is always "baggage" coming into our lives that would weigh us down and hinder us - but growth comes as a Christian - when we DAILY learn to hand it over - and with HIS HELP even emotional baggage can be sorted.
Nowadays I still carry "hand luggage" as my life is overwhelmed by problems - but God - through the help of His Church and Himself - helps me to sort it out at "Check out" and relinquish some of the load.