Jesus Will Free You of Your Excess Baggage

It’s been a long time since anyone in our immediate family has flown, but when they did they carried their baggage on board with them in a large duffle bag.  In 2008 some of the major airlines began charging fees for excess baggage. That rate has gone up continually over the years. Not all airlines charge but even those that don’t charge have a limit to the size and weight of the baggage. And the price for the heavier or larger baggage is pretty steep. Suffice it to say if you carry excess baggage these days it’s going to cost you.

Excess baggage isn’t just carried on a plane. It’s often carried by people. Even believers have their share of baggage. Some of it is carried over from the days before their commitment to Christ.  It’s a heavy load to care and it truly costs dearly to carry the weight around. Some of it is carried due to sins committed in the past. Other weighted down baggage may be marital problems, how a person was raised or even religious expectations.  The cost of carrying the excess baggage comes when you try to carry it all yourself. Imagine walking into a restaurant and carrying all your trip belongings with you. Imagine sight-seeing and having to carry that stuff with you everywhere you go.  Up mountains, over bridges. Walking down the aisle? Carrying all your excess troubles, mistakes, misunderstandings, rejections to the altar.  You quickly get a picture of what happens when the excess baggage isn’t dealt with. It enters into everything you do and everywhere you go. It’s a load no one should carry and it will cost you more than you want to pay.

God speaks to my heart: I have come to the world to lighten the sin load of everyone who comes to Me for relief. There at Calvary I set the precedent for a life that never has to be burdened with the weight of sin. Why are you still carrying that with you? Are you expecting to be able to do something with your past regrets? Hand them to me quickly before you find yourself so weighted down with sin that you cannot enter into My rest. I have also come to ransom you from the weight of rejection, fears, worry, and all the other things that people think they have to carry on with them. Everywhere you go you will need to be light for the trip so that I can speak to your heart, guide your plans and guard your mind. You were never meant to carry anything that is in the way of a burdensome load.  If you will let Me, I the Lord, will take your excess baggage, relieve you of the burden as well as the cost of carrying it around with you and give you My yoke instead. As you learn of Me you will find that My yoke is easy to bear and the burden I give you is light. It’s time to walk freely, be able to dance in My presence, and go where I send you. With excess baggage you are barely going to make it, but free of your baggage you will be able to soar with Eagle’s wings and scale the heights with Me.  

Oh beloved, weighed down? Feeling the weight of the world on your shoulders? Are you finding that the more you take on the harder it is to move? It’s time to give your burdens to the Lord? Your cares aren’t meant to be carried and your sins aren’t meant to weigh you down. You can be free! It doesn’t matter what you’ve done or why you’re weary, take it all to the Lord. It sounds simple and it is. God has made it so simple that as we begin to unload it all on Him we find that He just does away with it. It’s gone as far as the east is from the west. It’s in the sea of forgetfulness. He will never bring it up again and He will never try to weigh you down with it. If you feel that you must take it all up and carry it again, you can be sure that it is not the Lord requiring it of you. Your excess baggage will take a toll in your life, in your vocation, in your marriage, in your relationships, even in your fellowship with other believers, even with your own perception of yourself. These heavy weights may have been given you by others or may be built up within yourself. Excess baggage can be sin, wrong thinking, rejection, humiliation, defeated thinking, depression, discouragement or more. They can be fleshly in nature or even religious. The enemy of your soul wants you weighed down and thus useless for the Kingdom. Wherever it has come from, God will show you because God is love.  The lightening of your load by God through Christ will give you a freedom you’ve never known. It is the freedom that all creation is looking for and it’s just what you’ve been wanting. Try it today, go to God and give Him all your burdens. Begin now. The process may take a while but you will begin to feel so much lighter in mind, spirit and body as you start the process.

God loves you and He is for you. That’s why He wants you to quit paying for the excess baggage you were never meant to carry. He needs you to be free to live, love and share His love, His care and His truth all the days of your life.

John 8:36 So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

Matthew 11:28-30 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

Hebrews 12:1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

Psalm 34:6 In my desperation I prayed, and the LORD listened; He saved me from all my troubles.

Looking for True Strength and Real Freedom?

Zoos have always held a lot of enjoyment for us.  One time we were watching small monkeys and one of them had their hand caught in the cage. It seems the little animal had wanted something that was outside the cage. After grasping the item, their paw was then a fist. That fist wouldn’t fit back through the cage. Try as he might, the arm was not budging. No amount of squealing, jumping or pulling was going to achieve a thing. Only when he let go of the object he had so wanted was he able to pull his arm back inside the cage was he able to free himself from entanglement.

Traveling through the airports now, it’s a big deal to go through the checkpoint to get on the plane. You empty your pockets and get every little thing checked. There are simply some things you cannot take on board with you. If you insist on taking things that they don’t allow, you will be barred from your flight. Fight them, argue with them, demand your rights – it all turns out the same. You will not be carrying anything on the plane they consider unfit. The only way to be free to travel is to learn how to pack.

There is a freedom God desires for you to walk in that will require you to let go of what is entangling you. It may be something you desperately want to keep or have desired for some time. It could be a person, place or thing.  You want to be free, but you keep hanging on. If you will let go you will find the freedom that is best for a child of God. He doesn’t want your stuff, but He does want your heart. And it’s amazing how much stuff and hearts are intertwined.

There are places  God wants to take you that will require you to unpack some things that you’ve carried around with you as well.  You simply cannot travel the heights with the Lord while hanging onto baggage. You’ll need to drop that unforgiveness. Lose the fear. Toss out the worry. Empty the guilt. While you’re at it, get rid of the lies: you know - the things you’ve believed about yourself that are so untrue for a child of the Most High God. 

Just as we are embarking on a New Year, you are embarking on a new day with the Lord. You may have heard His call but you’ve been living with a knotted fist and insisting on your rights to carry the junk with you everywhere you go. You think a new day would be great, but what about your stuff?

God speaks to our hearts doesn’t He?  Where you are today is not where I want to take you. I have wonderful plans for your life and for your new year. If you are willing you will walk in My freedom and your load will be light. But you’ll have to trust Me to prepare you for the trip.  Don’t look at what you are losing, look instead at what you are gaining. It’s no accident that you find yourself in a quandary between your desires and My plans.  A new year will come whether you want it or not. 2013 is quickly becoming a vapor. My plans are for now. My plans are for your good. My desires for you are better than your desires for yourself. Don’t walk away from the terminal of decision and count it too much to lose. Remember that I desire freedom for my children and that freedom is found only in relinquishing your life into My loving care. You don’t have the strength to break the bars of your own entanglements. You don’t have enough weaponry of flesh to insist to carry junk you don’t need with you. It’s not about fleshly or secular strength. It’s about becoming obedient to Me that you find true strength and real freedom.

Oh beloved, what wondrous love is this, that God won’t leave us as we are. He never quits planning our lives for His glory. Our best travel and our greatest freedom is when God is in charge of everything.  Let Him take you to the next level as you lay aside the things that want to keep you earthbound. Relinquish every entanglement and watch as you learn to enjoy freedom in Christ. Oh how He loves us! So much that He refuses to leave us as we are! A better life is ahead for you as you live in the light of His Word!

John 14:1 Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in Me.

Ephesians 4:21-23 Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from Him,  throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception.  Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.

Matthew 6:21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”

2 Corinthians 3:17 For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

Philippians 4:19 And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from His glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.

Let God Empty You of Needless Things

I bought a bigger purse so I’d have room for everything. Trouble is everything I need goes to the bottom of the huge purse! I finally got tired of digging through everything to find one small item I needed. One day I just emptied the entire contents of my purse onto the bar in the kitchen. To my amazement there was tons of stuff that came out of my purse! Receipts, deposit slips, notes, along with a billfold, a comb, a hairbrush, keys, fingernail clipper and more.  It was a mountain of stuff – no wonder my shoulder was hurting!

It was only when I completely emptied my purse that I could find what I was looking for. I decided that there was no need to put all that back in my purse and carry it around, so I left it out. Now that my purse is less full of contents, I find it much easier to find what I really need. I’m concerned though that it won’t be long until it’s all filled up again with things I just jam in there because I’m in too big a hurry or don’t have time to file it or put it away.

Life is a lot like a purse. There are many compartments and lots of room. We tend to fill our lives up with stuff and stuff our lives with things. Add another trip to the store, another ballgame to play, a date with friends, a movie, a new set of golf clubs, a new relationship, a new church, a bigger vacation.  We get so full of stuff we can’t find what we really need. We’re too busy shuffling through the mountain of activity to even enjoy the most important things in life.

It’s only when we empty ourselves of the excess that we can see the important things, what we’re really searching for clearly.  When it’s all emptied out, even though the process can be unnerving and hurtful, we find that what we really need is already there for us. We just have to be careful that when we get rid of the junk we don’t slip back into refilling our lives and losing sight of God’s best again.

Are you digging in the bag of life, searching for precious things you thought were lost? Have you been emptied out and left alone? Do you feel that there’s no hope for you and that without all the stuff you had you won’t be complete? Are you concerned that if God asks for things from you, you might be worthless, useless or less than you want to be?

Oh beloved, run to God’s Word this morning and see just how complete you are in Christ! See the magnificent jewels of His truths that are hidden beneath the junk. Pull out faith and put it on! Take out peace and let it cover you completely! Don’t fill up on junk, for it’s too heavy a burden to carry. Rather, let God empty you of needless things so that you can be filled with needful gifts and blessings from His rich storehouse. God says I AM your best choice, I AM your greatest asset, I AM your most precious item and your beloved keepsake. Let Me replace the emptiness you feel with the fullness of Me.

God loves you and He’s for you and that’s more than enough to keep you full of love joy and peace the rest of your days!

Matthew 11:28 Then Jesus said, Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

Psalm 119:37 Turn my eyes from worthless things, and give me life through Your word.

Psalm 119:92-93 If Your instructions hadn’t sustained me with joy, I would have died in my misery. I will never forget Your commandments, for by them You give me life.

Genesis 22:14 Abraham named the place Jehovah – Jireh (which means “the Lord will provide”). To this day, people still use that name as a proverb: “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”

Luke 10:41-42 But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

Mother's Day is the Lord's Day!

My mother was born in an age when most folks still had a horse and buggy for transportation. When she was about 2, her parents left her and her older brother on the farm to fend for themselves while they traveled with the baby brother to town for supplies.  Her older brother was maybe 4. She shared how they would gather buffalo chips to burn in the fireplace to keep warm.  She recalled her mother asking her father to please take all the children with them. That was the beginning of a lifetime of hardship and hard places to be in.

But they survived. My mother survived. She went on to survive many many things in her lifetime. From peritonitis to cancer to miscarriages to tuberculosis and more. She survived abandonment, horrible work conditions and bad marriages.

My mother more than survived. She thrived. While most folks would knuckle under any one of the many tales she had of adversities to live a life of anger, fear and turmoil in return, not my mother.  She just got stronger with each thing that came along.  She laughed often, forgave a lot and lived free. She worked hard, had fun and helped others. People drew from her strength – from her siblings to her children to her friends.

One time I asked the Lord to have the spirit and strength of my mother. He spoke to my heart. It seems my mother’s strength of character came from adversity.   Now everyone wants to have strength, but who wants to develop that strength?  Dough gets tougher the more you knead it. Polished rocks come out of a tumbler after days in the machine. Tarnished silver requires cleaning compound and rubbing, rubbing, rubbing.   Get the picture?

I know that Mother’s Day is not a huge blessing for everyone. Some of you are living under the rejection of a beloved child. Some of you have been dumped by a husband, forgotten about by a parent and you’ve been through the mill. The heartache of life in general, has left you dreading the day, wanting to forget all about it.  The Hallmark version of this holiday just doesn’t fit you and you may wonder how to ignore it altogether.

Others of you want to have that inner strength, but going through hard things just isn’t what anybody asks for. Yet, God in His incredible, redemptive mercy can make every single hard time, every mountain, every valley, every heartache, every mistake you’ve made or others made against you, and the hurt and pain work together for YOUR good.  

Oh, beloved, it’s time to drop the baggage of poor parenting, poor raising and poor outcomes at the door of worship and enter in to the Lord’s presence. This day can be a magnificent day to give Him every burden you ever carried, to lift every load that someone put on you, to decrease your pain and increase your joy. He says to you this morning that He loves you, He loves you, He loves you. And while you may not understand why you are going through hard things, you can trust Him to get you through, make you stronger in the process and increase your faith in Him. Because He loves you, He will celebrate with you, even if no one else does. He not only hears your cries for mercy and answered prayers, He is the reliever, redeemer and restorer of your life!

God is real and He’s speaking to your heart, no matter how you were raised, how you’ve been treated or what you’ve done wrong.  Let Him love you and let Him take your life and let it be consecrated to Him. For He’s with you forever and that’s all that really matters, as He makes your life a shining example of His love, mercy and strength!

Isaiah 54:5 For your Creator will be your husband; the LORD of Heaven's Armies is His name! He is your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of all the earth.

Psalm 119:107 I have suffered much, O Lord; restore my life again as you promised.

Colossians 3:10 Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like Him.

Psalm 59: 17 O my Strength, to you I sing praises, for you, O God, are my refuge, the God who shows me unfailing love.

Romans 8:28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

You Were Meant to Travel Light!

While working on my boss’s travel to Washington DC last week, I noticed that he had two tickets for baggage. Each time he checked his baggage, it cost him.  It wasn’t a whole lot of money, but if a person had to declare their baggage and pay for it every week it would count up.  I understand that some airlines charge for baggage even more when it weighs more. The heavier it is and the more bags you’re carrying, the more it costs. You can be charged on one airline for heavy baggage, large baggage and too much baggage. Three prices added up makes for expensive travel.  Imagine if you had to carry your heavy, large and overloaded amount of baggage onto the plane yourself? It would be so tiresome that some folks would just give up trying to fly.

We all have had baggage. Some of it was of our own making. We gave our hearts to the Lord but we didn’t know how to give our problems, our past, our regrets, our fears to Him. So we kept hauling that stuff around with us everywhere we went.  It makes for expensive travel. It bears so heavy on some folks that they are totally bent over with the load. Without having anyone to carry their baggage for them, they are destined to live under the load, tiring out easily and always out of breath. They can neither travel the high mountains of extreme joy nor make it through the valleys of trouble. It’s a rough life to walk around with excess baggage.

We were meant to travel light. We were never meant to carry the stuff we had before Christ with us forever. We aren’t meant to gather new baggage either. If we insist on carrying our own stuff, we will be so burdened that we won’t be able to share God’s love and tell others how He heals, sets free and delivers.  We won’t be able to do that because we won’t be walking in freedom from the load.

People are looking for someone to lighten their load. Nobody intends to live burdened lives with all that junk stacked in their hearts and minds. Nobody wants to have to pay daily for excess, too large or too much baggage.  It’s hard to feel you can never let it go. It’s a rough life to walk around with all your fears and animosity, your troubles and regrets drug behind you like an anchor in the sea.  You know people are looking for an answer to this oh so heavy load, because there are so many self-help books on that subject. Trouble with self-help books is they all point you to you!

Oh beloved, this morning God is walking beside you and He’s telling you that He will lighten your load! He will say to you were never meant to carry that stuff around with you eternally. He says to you, lay your burdens on Me. Let’s look at those things you’ve been carrying far too long and talk about each one. There – that Unforgiveness? I can relieve you of that. For I forgave you at the cross and already made arrangements for all of that.  There – those Regrets?  You don’t need to carry them around with you for I don’t even know about them – they are in the sea of forgiveness never to be brought up again. Fear? Oh my beloved, you were never meant to carry one ounce of fear, not for yesterday, not for today and certainly not for tomorrow. I AM your load bearer, I AM your lifter and your lightener. If you will let Me I will remove your baggage and together we will travel to My anointing and My plan for your life.

This morning the Baggage Carrier is calling out to you, I love you, I love you, I love you! And because of His incredible, unending, eternal, perfect love He will lighten your load, carry your burdens for you and give you a travel plan that’s out of this world!

 

Matthew 11:28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

Psalm 55:22 Give your burdens to the Lord, and He will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall.

Psalm 146:8  The Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are weighed down. The Lord loves the godly.