So this week I attended a camp at Mullartown House just outside of Annalong!! And when I arrived I was just looking forward to having a week full of fun and to learn more about God!! Both of these things happened and there was lots of time for fun and lots of time for learning but God was at work this week in my life!!
So on Monday night we got a speaker in and he was talking about baggage that we all carry, baggage that as Christians we don't need to carry because we should give it all to God!! But so often we cling onto this baggage and can't let it go and this is precisely how I was feeling!! But on Monday night I just felt like God was saying to me "Jemma you need to let go of all of that! You can't fix it by yourself and it is holding you back! You don't need to worry any more, come to me!" And that is precisely what I did that night!!
I think it is so easy for us as Christians to cling onto so much pain and hurt and guilt and so many other things in our lives and think it is okay to do so!! But in 1 Corinthians 5:17 it says, "Therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. The old has gone the new has come." Think about that, when we are in Christ what held us back in our old lives is now gone and new things are too come. We need to give all our worries, all our anxieties, all our insecurities, all our failures and all our problems to God so that he can make us new in Him.
Also in Galatians 5:1 we are told "So Christ has truly set us free. Now, make sure that you stay free, and don't get ties up again in slavery to the law." This verse speaks so clearly to me, when we give our lives to Christ he sets us free from the sin that used to tie us down. As we continue to walk with Christ we will slip up, we will sin, we will have hard times but we need to make sure that we come to God with all these troubles so we remain free and don't get caught up as we walk with Him day by day.
Two of my favourite verses are Hebrews 12:1-2: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honour beside God's throne." We have a race to run, we have to be witnesses to those around us. With guilt and baggage in our lives we cannot be the witness that God wants to make us to be, we cannot run effectively because the sin in our lives keeps tripping us up and we fall down. So each day as we get up we need to hand over the sin in our lives that trips us up so easily to God, because with that sin we will be kept back in our faith and we won't be able to grow as God wants us too. He wants to mould us and perfect us but if He doesn't have all of our lives (which includes all that baggage and pain), if won't don't give that to Him, He can't shape us into the person He has planned for us to be. And to do this, to run this race of faith, we need to look to Jesus, all the time. In everything we do Jesus should be at the centre of it.
He has come "that they may have life and have it to the full." (John 10:10) and with baggage in our lives we cannot live life to the full and I realised that this week. God has taught me that I need to give all of my life to Him which is hard for me because I am a control freak, I need to know what is happening and need to handle stuff on my own but I have realised that God is the only one who can take care of my problems, I cannot fix them by myself.
I don't know what you are going through in life at the minute, I don't know if you're happy or you're hurting, if you're free or you're tied down with burdens, but I do know this, whatever stage of life you are at now, whatever you are going through, God loves you. He loves you so much and wants you to run to Him and give everything you have to Him. He wants you to give Him those burdens that you have and let Him deal with them. He wants you to let go of the hurt and pain in your life, the guilt and the sin you struggle with. He wants to perfect you and mould you into the person that He intended for you to be. This procedure of moulding you and shaping you into the person He wanted you to be may be painful, it may hurt you, you may lose friends, it may be long and difficult but God will be there all the time. He will be there when you fall to pick you up. He will carry you through rough times. He is never ever ever going to leave you!! (I know that this is true because I speak from experience!!) Just give all you have to Him because He cares for you and loves you more than you know.
Wrote with love,
Jemma x
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