No Baggage Allowed
Do you know anyone who came to Christ, accepted Him as their savior, because things were going great?
Do you know anyone who came to Christ while they were on an upward spiral?
Probably not.
The majority of people who surrender to Christ, do so as a response to hardship, sadness, trouble or a loss of hope.
I know, because I was one of those people.
Sadly, when those people enter into a life of Christ, they will usually bring their baggage with them into that walk with God.
I know I did. I personally had so much baggage, I needed a U-Haul truck to carry it!
But, the problem is this;
Sometimes those suitcases of issues that we bring into our walk with Christ are full of things we want to keep.
– Pride
– Bitterness
– Self-righteousness
– Lust
– Gossip
– Selfishness
Why is that?
Because those people are more used to walking in the world, than in the Word.
Because those people are more concerned with their Comfort over their Character.
☆ For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father, but is from the world.
• 1 John 2:16
What this is saying is that too many Christians still mainly live for their comfort.
That Christian has NOT been living for any change…in themselves.
Yes that Christian is looking for change, that is why they accepted Christ.
But the change they expected is BY God from the outside in.
Not WITH God from the inside out.
Living with God to raise their comfort
– Rather than –
Living with God to raise their character.
But that is a problem with baggage;
It is filled with all the stuff we have collected throughout our lives.
Things we know, things we are used to, things we use all the time, things we OWN.
But God says ‘NO Baggage Allowed‘ for a reason.
Because HIS narrow way is to skinny for us to get through with all OUR crap.
Because it’s killing us because of how heavy it is as we trudge with it through life.
☆ Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely.
• Hebrews 12:1
• God tells us No Baggage Allowed because it’s bondage;
• God tells us No Baggage Allowed because it’s heavy.
• God tells us No Baggage Allowed because it means FREEDOM!
Because when we let go of that massive load that we’ve forced ourselves to lug around in our life, we have been so used to it, that the lingering habit of it can shadow our growth.
So, really completely removing those back breaking burdens can become a task in itself. A task that can be so difficult that we need to keep our attention on it so we don’t harm ourselves any further.
So think about how wonderful it is when we can honestly and entirely let that go!
For it is at that time that we can focus our full attention on God.
Then with confidence within ourselves, we can look directly at God.
And if we are looking at God, then obviously God will be looking at us too.
Which makes it easy for God to snatch us out of any trouble we may find ourselves in.
☆ My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for he will pluck my feet out of the net.
• Psalm 25:15
So get rid of all the baggage!
Remember who your big brother is.
Remember that;
HE has given us power.
HE has given us strength.
HE has given us direction.
HE has given us a path to follow
HE has given us HIS promise that we can overcome our worldly nature.
Because HE overcame the world FOR US!
☆ “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
• John 16:33
There is No Baggage Allowed in heaven!
We will be given everything we need when we arrive.
Better than that;
We have been given everything we need for our lives right now!
We can drop the rock, set our burdens down, and release all of the baggage.
For our Lord has given us a gift.
HE paid the price for us, and we are no longer under the bondage of the world…unless we choose.
So choose God.
☆ For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
• Galatians 5:1
Praise God!
We can live free.
And live in our own rule of
NO BAGGAGE ALLOWED!
