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