Matthew 11:28-30 | AMPC (28) Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.] (29) Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls. [Jer 6:16] (30) For My yoke is wholesome (useful, good–not harsh, hard, sharp, or pressing, but comfortable, gracious, and pleasant), and My burden is light and easy to be borne.
If you could really see into the souls of people, you would see that type of baggage being carried around even by people that don’t realize they are carrying any baggage.
What we do in life is learn how to function with the baggage that we carry.
We cover up for them. We make devices and try to compensate for them.
Sometimes we can have a physical injury early in life and even though we may have recovered from it, we may now have limited flexibility or something like it and we learn in life to compensate or hide it.
We carry these things in life, and we try and skirt around situations and circumstances in life that may expose the baggage.
We know if we get into a certain set of circumstances, it may trigger some kind of reaction or response because of the baggage that will embarrass us, so we avoid those circumstances all together.
Why does the baggage show up?
Proverbs 25:19 | NKJV (19) Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble Is like a bad tooth and a foot out of joint.
The time of trouble is pressure time. When you try and lean on this person in a time of trouble, they are not dependable. The bad tooth and foot out of joint were existing conditions that were only exposed during the pressure time.
Pressure does not create the flaw, it just exposes it.
If you don’t deal with the baggage, it will eventually come between you and the people who mean the most to you.
The baggage will begin to wear on you and affect your relationships.
It can be something that happened to you early in life and because we do not deal with those things, they will show up later in life at the most inopportune times when you least need them to surface.
It is important that we deal with these things because there are people that you have in your life right now that you may not have in your life later because these things come up and damage the relationship beyond repair.
How does Baggage Start?
Satan uses people to bruise other people, and this creates the baggage.
Ephesians 6:12a | NKJV (12) For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood…
The devil uses people to hurt and bruise other people. When this happens, we carry this bruise.
Often, it is bruised people that turn around and inflict the same kind of damage on other people.
“Since I am a Born-Again believer, I thought that when I received Christ all of my baggage would go away.”
2 Corinthians 5:17 | NKJV (17) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
James 1:21 | AMPC (21) So get rid of all uncleanness and the rampant outgrowth of wickedness, and in a humble (gentle, modest) spirit receive and welcome the Word which implanted and rooted [in your hearts] contains the power to save (sozo – heal, preserve, make whole) your souls.
What Satan is really after in trying to bruise us is to make us hate God and then hate ourselves.
Satan wants to injure us in our souls so that we will carry that and then in turn hurt other people.
If you hate yourself, you are going to hurt other people.
Matthew 22:37-39 | NKJV (37) Jesus said to him, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ (38) This is the first and great commandment. (39) And the second is like it: ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’
When you begin to love yourself, you can truly begin to love others.
God put His Spirit on the inside of you so that you will not hate yourself. (Romans 5:5)
We can learn to let these things go.
God wants to set you free from these things.
The baggage is not in your innermost spirit, it is in your soul and your soul can be renewed and repaired.
Car Restoration Illustration: The engine and transmission is brand new but the body needs painting, the upholstery is ripped, the windows are cracked, etc. Little by little the shop begins to replace one thing a week until the car is totally renewed and restored.
Psalms 23:3 | NKJV (3) He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.
Psalms 23:3a | BBE (3) He gives new life to my soul…
You are going to find out that there are a whole lot of people that are just like you and carrying baggage.
In this series, we are going to talk about the process of getting rid of this baggage so that you can be free, and you will not harm your relationships.
Luke 4:18 | AMPC (18) The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon Me, because He has anointed Me [the Anointed One, the Messiah] to preach the good news (the Gospel) to the poor; He has sent Me to announce release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to send forth as delivered those who are oppressed [who are downtrodden, bruised, crushed, and broken down by calamity],
Jesus did not come to help you through your old life, but to give you a brand-new life.
Revelation 21:5 | NKJV (5) Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”