While sitting this afternoon in the parking lot about to pull out of my coffee run, I observed a car in front of me that was literally filled to capacity in both the back and passenger seats with what appeared to be belongings from home being moved. The lamp shade was smashed against the front window. The boxes were being crushed in the back. Bags and bags were filling any open space (at least from where I was able to see). The scene was overwhelming. And I sat and wondered in that brief moment, as the Lord impressed upon my heart, what do I carry around that clutters my life? What past failures do I allow to crowd my present? What baggage that I should have surrendered to Christ still crams my heart and mind today?
And I said to the person next to me, how is there space for anything else? Anything new? Anything fresh? As Scripture promises, "The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness" (Lamentations 3:22-23). If our lives are so full of yesterday's baggage and mistakes, of yesterday's hurts and sins, then how do we have room to embrace the newness of His mercy today?! The car drove off carrying all of the heavy load being moved from one place to the next, and I was grateful of the reminder that in the faithfulness of the Lord, He has taken my sin from me and cast it as far as the east is from the west. Now I move on in the freedom of Christ...still aware of the past, but not bound by it in my present. He has poured out His steadfast love to ensure that my heart would be His home. And that the clutter of sin would be trumped with the washing and renewal of His Word.
Friend, let the baggage go. Christ can handle it. Then embrace His mercy. Embrace His love. Perhaps even better, feel His mercy and love embrace you. Pray for Him to clean up your heart, so that it is fresh and ready for what today holds.
4Hisglory.
