Baggage

When I change pocket books, in haste I just take everything out of the old bag and put it into a new one, not even knowing that I was bringing the old papers, receipts and bills along with me. It wasn't until one day in the middle of this routine that I realized this is what I've been doing in my own personal life.  I was carrying old bills, receipts, gum wrappers etc., or in other words "trash" in a brand new bag.  Everything looked good on the outside but what people didn't know was that inside my nice new bag was trash.

That's how I have been walking around for a while; looking great on the outside, but on the inside, were old behaviors that I carried into this new season and new life in Christ.   I would constantly throw new items that I’d bought into my new bag adding to the clutter of the old stuff.  When it was time for me to retrieve the new items, I had to push around the clutter to get to them.  It would have been so much easier if I had just discarded the old things instead of putting them into the new bag.  God gave me a new life and he constantly places new ideas, new desires and new behaviors in me that get lost in the clutter of old behaviors and thoughts. 

It wasn't until I got tired of all the clutter in my bag that I decided one night to take everything out of my new bag, separate the items and put the old things in the trash. I also realized that I had to do this in my own life as well.  There were nights when I sat alone to trying to separate the old from the new and even though the old thoughts and behaviors I had unraveled frightened me, I had to look at them to distinguish the two in order to discard what I no longer needed.  What's in you that is causing so much clutter?  What's taking up space and blocking the newness God has called you to walk in?  Grab hold to the new ideas, new thoughts, and new perspective about yourself that will allow you to clean out your bag.  You don't have to settle with the mess.

The bible explains in detail what happens when you mix the old with the new in Luke 5:37, "And no one pours new wine into old wine skins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wine skins will be ruined."  The end result will be devastating.  If you are a new creature in Christ you cannot allow the old things of your past continue to dwell in you or you will die in the confusion of trying to be new while still practicing the old.  Such behavior breeds frustration and bitterness, and God has not called us to walk in frustration but instead he has called us to walk in love.  I Am Her - Bianka Rios.

 

-Romans 12:2
-2 Corinthians 5:17
-Luke 5:37

Do you ever find yourself constantly bored with the hum drum of every day? Do you hope and dream of a life filled with "more" but have no clue of what that is or how to get it? Do you surround yourself with people, places and things you don't necessarily "fit into" but convince yourself to because it doesn't occur that better awaits you? If you answered "yes" to any and or all of the aforementioned questions, then it's time, my friend, for you to "Raise the Bar"! Raise the Bar is an expression that stems from track and field events where an athlete has to clear a bar successfully in order to continue competing in a race of the high jump or the pole vault. The object is to set the bar at a certain height and continue to raise it to see who can jump the highest. In everyday life this simply means to not settle for less. It means setting higher standards to get better results. It means never accepting ordinary or the bare minimum because ordinary and minimum will never make you great. All too often, we as people have a tendency to do and accept less than best. You know why? Well as for me, it was because I didn’t know who I was. I didn’t know my purpose and therefore I didn’t live on purpose either. I accepted less because less is what I thought I was. I failed to ‘Raise the Bar’. As a result, my eyes began to see the dark reflections of my thoughts. Thank God for blessing me with a Pastor that teaches me who I really am. She constantly reinforces that the scriptures I grew up hearing aren’t just reading material, they are alive, active and powerful and are actually relevant and they apply to me! How amazing God’s Word is to help me discover that God fearfully and wonderfully designed me to be a precious Royal Gem specifically chosen to live a life of abundance; abundance that has been granted to me through Christ offering Himself as a living sacrifice to die for me. I don’t know anyone that values me enough to die for me – but yet and still, Jesus did it for me. You want to know what else He chose me to be? He chose me to be an ambassador and messenger to show and tell others of His goodness and how they too can be freed from darkness and brought into His wonderful Light of Love, Peace, Joy and more by ‘Raising the Bar’ – “I Am Her” - Debbie Wallace. Scripture References: Hebrews 4:12; Proverbs 23:7; Psalm 139:14; Proverbs 3:15; 1 Peter 2:9


Caution: Walk…Don’t Run

I love to run!  It’s enthralling, intense and allows my ‘Type A’ personality to be drenched with sweat so I can feel like I’ve accomplished something.  However, on one particular day I set the treadmill on 30 minutes and ran non- stop, something happened.  I never reached my target heart rate of 170 beats per minute and the sweat seemed to stay in my pores.  Even worse, when I looked at my calories burned it stated 200 instead of my usual 300 calories burned in 30 minutes.  I was then determined to add some more hills and a faster pace, anything to make my workout more intense, but something deep down in my belly told me to just walk, not run.  I then knew that in my physical body, something drastic changed. 

   Like my physical state, I strived for so much in the beginning of my walk with Christ that it caused me many, many regrets.  I thought my actions had to be intense and filled with heavenly behaviors.  I felt super guilty if I enjoyed myself by reading a fiction book instead of Joyce Myers and I believed a relationship with God was based on my work in ministry.  I even felt like God had a checklist with him in Heaven.  On some days he checked off the entire good column and on other days, He checked off one good box.  I knew for sure He was tallying those boxes up and based on what I got, I would receive either the plagues of locust or Manna from Heaven.  God was more like Santa to me, and less like my Heavenly Father.  

Many of us may suffer with the ‘work till you earn God’s love syndrome’.   Like running non- stop on a treadmill, we spend more time doing the works of God than spending time with God.  We think if we do the right things, then we will be blessed and if we do the wrong things, then we will be cursed.   Our perception of God is so discombobulated that we are willing to forgo a relationship to achieve religion.  Many of us receive the accolades of man, but lack a spiritual friendship with the one who created us.  We continue to run, when all Jesus is really asking us to do is to walk with him in union. 

It is possible to stop striving if you’re a ‘Type A’ personality like me.  It means being okay with failures, not always being in control and taking a break from the business of life.  It is simply enjoying the time when you just walk in fellowship with God.  For many people it will mean to slow down and reset your mind to usher out some previously held beliefs about God and to begin filling yourself with the truth of God’s word. “Cease striving and know that I am God” (Psalms 46:10). Today, I work very hard to simply cease and enjoy my walk with Christ.




                                                                                  Blogger Sommer Nicole Sigler......I AM HER