IT'S TIME TO...
JETTISON YOUR BAGGAGE!

Have you ever taken a trip and realized that you packed a lot more than you needed?  Somewhere along the middle of the trip, you start giving away the excess to make the load lighter.  If you were in a race, you would probably leave it all behind so that you would be free to press on.

Well, we are in a race.  Paul tells us to "press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil.3:14)

Hebrews 12:1 adds "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,"

Sometimes though, it seems we are running with "lead" boots on.  It may be easier to agree with Paul as he says," For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do." (Romans 7:19)  We pray and cry out to God to "help my low self-esteem" or "free me from this depression."  After endless trips to counselors, we seem no better off.  We wonder why God won't "fix" us.  Maybe God won't answer because we are asking the wrong question.  You can't analyze sin away.   As hard as it seems, pondering over each sermon you hear in hopes the key is there to free you from the traps of the flesh will never work.  The flesh (carnal nature) must die.

Romans 1: 17 says "the Just shall live by faith".   It takes faith to believe that the shed blood of Jesus covers our sins and if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9). Often there are no apparent results so our mind wants to convince us that nothing happened.  That's why Paul tells us to "reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. (Romans 6:11, 12)

Consider this, a dead man has no problem with lust.  He doesn't have a poor self-image and can't be hurt if someone talks about him.  We have to confess our sins to God and then consider ourselves dead to them.   That is why Romans 8:1 says,"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

and also

Galatians 5:16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

I personally keep and recommend a spiritual journal.  I have a blank book where I write whatever words from God I receive or revelations He shows me.  If you have been struggling with some of these things, it would also be a good place to write down the date you turned something over to God.  Then when those condemning voices come to accuse you, you can point to the page and say,"not so.   I gave it to God on this date and I'm not taking it back.  If you want to talk about it, you have to take it up with Him!"  If we consistently refuse to even think about the things we are seeking victory over, they will finally wither and die.

Romans 8:5 tells us,"For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

It's time to finally rid ourselves of the excess baggage we have been carrying.  Then we qualify to press on into the rest of Romans 8 and the maturity required of sons in the Kingdom of God.

Glenna's Garret Links

Email - gandree @ netmender.net

Homepage


| Life (Humorous)| Netmender | Magnets
My Testimony