Please, God! Take This Baggage!

BAGGAGE: past experiences that are regarded as burdens, cares and weights (i.e., emotional baggage).

I made it home from Tulsa in time to quickly change clothes and head to my church for our annual 3-night Lenten Mission where we intentionally set aside the time to dive deeper and lean in closer to God. It’s about going to a place of introspection and renewing our hearts to purposely enter into a deeper relationship with our Lord. It’s as though we’re at the doctor’s office and he’s using his stethoscope to check our heart beat and condition. Then he gives us the “prescription” for healing our heart.

Last night’s message focus was on our relationship with Jesus Christ who is our Face of Freedom. He sets us FREE which implies that we have been BOUND by stuff. We’ve become stuck in our issues and clutter and all that BAGGAGE in our lives. Jesus gets us because He came to earth to be one of us and experienced what we experience. Hebrews 4:15 “This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses since He had the same temptations we do, though He never once gave way to them and sinned.” We experience temptation, rejection, betrayal, disappointment, discouragement AND, so did Jesus. Jesus came to give us freedom. Freedom from anything that holds us bound: bad attitudes, addictions, fears, guilt, despair unforgiveness, anxiety, worry. All of that “stuff” is BAGGAGE that Jesus came to free us from. It’s time to ask God to free us of baggage that our soul cannot afford to lug around anymore. Jesus came to give us abundant life but we can’t live in that abundance as long as we don’t let go of the stuff.

Once we are willing to let go of all that BAGGAGE that we’ve carried far too long, Jesus will free us of the weight of so much baggage. We did that in a symbolic way last night as we wrote on an index card the names of the BAGGAGE that was weighing us down and then, where four tall crosses were at the front of the sanctuary with a basket beside them, we processed forward and gave those cards that contained our “BAGGAGE” to Jesus -- once and for all. All that “baggage” will be burned so there's no need to ever take it back on.

Now that we’re free of all the stuff – we can be FREE to give our full attention to Jesus – to make Him the Savior and Lord of our life. This question was asked “Where is God in your life on a scale? Is He #1 or #3 or #8? When we were dating our wife or husband, we couldn’t think about anything or anyone except them. We couldn’t help ourselves. We thought about them and even talked about them incessantly. That’s how our relationship with Jesus should be. What if we incessantly thought about Him, talked about Him and talked to Him, the more in love with Him we will become. When we’re that much in love with the Lover of our Souls – the cares of this world (the BAGGAGE) will no longer weigh us down and have us bound. I’m ready for that FREEDOM. How about you?