Baggage is a Burden

Recently, I read a devotional about Hebrews 12:1. It prompted me to begin thinking about baggage. You know it's something we all have in this world. Stuff. Issues. Whatever you want to call it, it is baggage. I think  for those who don't know the Lord it is EXCESS baggage.

 However, those who have a relationship with Jesus still have baggage and at times excess baggage. Many of our lives look like this airport baggage cart. We just keep piling things on top of another. What happens is we then get stuck. The burden becomes to great to move or carry or push. It also can become a distraction or even a source of frustration and eventually one just gives up. 

 God wants to help us with this baggage. He wants to take all of the excess and even what we think we can carry. Why, you may ask? Well, because He can handle the load. Dr Tony Evans puts it this way, "The good news of the presence of the Spirit of God is that He is the Emancipator. His job is to set you free from those things that hold you hostage." When He looks at our baggage he doesn't see what we see. He sees a child struggling to do things on their own when we hang on to these things. He wants to take them so that we can run the race marked before us. We can't run very well or very long with lots of stuff weighing us down. 

So, why don't we leave those bags on the carousel of the baggage claim and allow God through His Son, Jesus take those bags. As we approach the annual time to corporately remember the death, burial and resurrection of our Savior, we should once again revisit this leaving of baggage. Allow Him to carry it for us. This is what the cross was all about for us. It is the place where God allowed His Son to take it all on Him.