Carrying the Baggages

Imagine yourself after a shopping spree, carrying eight different shopping bags already, four at each hand. Your hands are so full with these bags of stuffs you bought. When you meet your mom, your mom had bought another three bags of gifts for you, and she had to give you right away because she will need to go somewhere right after. But because your hands are too full, you could not carry the gifts from your mother and as the result, your mother had to keep the things with her until the next time you see her. You could have earn the gifts your mother had bought you (without even spending a dime on them); but you couldn't have it now because your hands are full.

Try to reflect this with our life. Our life may not be a shopping spree of a happy jolly moment. The baggages we carry may not be the things we like. Usually life's baggages we have to carry around are our dilemmas, our thoughts, our worries, our problems, etc. When we want to come to God, we often carry our baggages. Our mind couldn't focus on Him and receive what He have in store for us, just because our hands are full with our baggages. We cannot concentrate on what He has to say for us, because our minds are so much occupied with our thoughts. As the result, we may miss out the great things God wants to impart right now, just because we choose to hold on to our baggages.

We should make sure that when we enter into His presence, we lay down all our baggages at His feet. It is tough to carry all those baggages on our own. Thankfully, God says "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28). We come to God in search of a place of rest, so even though we are burdensome, we should not be carrying all our burdens to ourselves. Psalm 55:22 says "Cast your cares on the LORD and He will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall." Aren't these two verses enough for us to lay our burdens before the Lord? We should not be weary in carrying the burdens ourselves, and especially we should not be carrying those burdens in coming to God. We come to God as empty-handed as we are, with a heart yearning and in thirst for God. God is the only One who could quench our thirst. We should lay those baggages down, and receive God's new blessings and graces with open arms.

We want to make sure that we don't miss a thing when we are in God's presence. We want to receive the fullness of His blessings and promises. We want to enlarge our capacity in receiving from Him, and we shouldn't let the baggages become our hindrance to receive the best from Him.

Blissfully Blessed,

Natasha Crescentia :)