This suitcase has been used and abused for seven years. It has been to places it never thought it would go. It has been pushed beyond it’s limits. It has endured pressure. It is stained. It’s edges are frayed. It’s zipper is broken. And now it lies in a trash heap forgotten.
We are like that suitcase. We carry around ‘extra baggage’. Things we should have let go long ago. And rather than lay it down at the foot of the Cross, we just keep picking up more and more baggage. We keep packing it away until the weight of it wears us down and we start to look frayed at the edges. We’ve stuffed ourselves so full of ‘baggage’ we are starting to tear at the seams and our zippers (hearts) are straining to contain it. What we’ve stored up on the inside is starting to overflow and become visible to those around us. The stains (sins) we’ve tried to keep hidden are seeping through. We’ve been through the pressure and the trials and the storms of life. We have gone through circumstances we never thought we would face. We have used and abused ourselves and allowed others to do the same. We have pushed ourselves beyond our limits and spread ourselves so thin there’s nothing left to spread. We got through all these things but we’ve lost sight of Who brought us through it. We only saw our frayed edges and broken zippers. We came through battered and torn and stained. We place ourselves in the trash heap and imagine ourselves forgotten.
But we don’t have to be that way. We have a choice.
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28
“Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool. ” Isaiah 1:18
I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned and by which they have transgressed against Me. Jeremiah 33:8
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:57
He knows our brokenness, He knows our stains, He knows our struggles and trials. He’s there with us through it all. He has not forgotten us. He wants to pick us up and clean us up and mend our brokenness, and take us with Him.
We are that suitcase. We must not only remember what to do with the “baggage”, we must also let the correct person carry it. A suitcase isn’t self propelling, it’s propelled by an outside force. Are you going to let God carry you or let satan drag you down.
From Glory To Glory 