Claim your Baggage

Philippians 3:13
No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead.

Psalm 51:7, 9-10
Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow......Don't keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt. Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me.


Reflections:

When you take a flight you check your baggage at the ticket counter. They place a tag on the bag indicating where you are going and who you are. The bag then goes through a series of slot before making it onto the plane. While you are sitting inside the plane, your baggage is underneath the plane in a special compartment. The thing about your baggage is that no matter how many layovers you have, your baggage goes with you and will meet you at your final destination. Many different people along the way handle your baggage but when it gets to you it is still the same baggage. If for some reason your baggage does not arrive the same time you do the airport has a designated area called 'baggage claim'. In this room are many pieces of baggage. You stop by a bag that looks exactly like yours but upon looking at the tag you realize that it is not your bag. You say to yourself, someone has the same baggage as me. So you move on to the next bag that looks like yours but again you find that it is not your bag. Again saying to yourself, “not mine but we have the same taste.” After looking at several bags that look like yours you find your bag. You go to the counter and make your claim.

In our lives we have made many mistakes. At some point we opened up our bag and each hurtful experience gets put in. We sometimes overload the bag with stuff we can not control. As we move forward in life we carry our baggage with us. For some, who have the same baggage, they are able to acknowledge their part in the problems that make up their baggage and they can move forward leaving their baggage in the special compartment. Oh it will always be with them, but they have put it behind them and are looking toward the future. Too many people however, not only carry their baggage with them, they open it and reveal the contents. When you walk out of a bad relationship and find a new man or woman, lock the bag. Don't throw the contents at the new person because he or she did not break your heart. When you enter a new job, don't go into the bag because this job is not your last job. You can't see ahead if you are constantly looking behind. As our scripture shows us, God can cleanse you and once you are cleanse you will be whiter than snow. Yes there will be people who will constantly remind you of the things you used to do. Claim your baggage and move on. You can look at that person and say, yes I used to do that, yeah I was the one who did this, but thank God I do not do that any more. You can look at the person who is revealing your baggage contents and say; my past is redeem through the Blood of the Lamb. As long as you hold on and keep opening up the baggage you can not move to the place God wants you to be.

God wants to cleanse you, he wants to renew your spirit and he wants to clear your path but you have to let go of the past. So, walk up to God' s ticket counter and check your baggage. And when you do, you will be able to see where you are going and you will arrive at a place of peace. And the good news is that you do not have to open up the door to the baggage claim because once God locks the door, it is sealed.

Walk into your season