change – Your spiritual life

Ever find in life you are carrying too much baggage to be able to move forward? I have been noticing it in my own life right now. I have been trying to get to a breakthrough in an area of life and keep hitting brick walls in myself internally and externally through things just not working right now however hard I try. It can be so frustrating.

It can feel like you’re carrying a heavy load around with you all the time, certainly that’s how I have been feeling. The trouble with getting to that place means we can become so locked in with it all that we begin to believe there is no way forward. That’s the lie we create in our mind designed to allow the heavy weight to stop us moving forward. What do we do – we stop trying becoming paralysed and unable to move. Highly likely we will give up at this point, the baggage we are carrying has weighed us down so much it becomes impossible to move.

Yesterday when I was having one of those days of why is nothing working and this is all too much for me right now moments. I stopped and asked God what was going on? The response was immediate “you have too much baggage, offload it so you can fly.” I found myself thinking but what is the baggage and how did it get there in the first place? Why I have I not seen that all building up? Easily done when we become caught up in life and allow it to consume us rather than staying in step with the Spirit of God and travelling light wherever he is leading.

This week I was away at a conference for evangelists. This time was so refreshing for me the only problem I had was I took too much stuff with me for two nights away. So much that I couldn’t carry all my bags and it became overwhelming at the stairs when I had to carry them up. Some kind man helped me when he saw me not managing. We laughed about the many bags I had. That was a revelation moment; most of what I brought wasn’t needed.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

Jesus spoke about travelling light through life. If we fail to do this we become weary, heavy and tired as a result. This is completely how I have been feeling. Overwhelmed by the baggage. Time to offload what I don’t need for the journey. Get back in step and let the Spirit of God lead. He knows what we need and what we don’t and gently and humbly move forward; being more like Jesus in our ways. Sounds like a plan we can do if we are carrying too much.

I am sure some of you will know the feelings I have described. Don’t try and do it all on your own just step back and do it with Jesus finding the rest for our souls we need. Much nicer than living weighed down. I will leave you to have a think of what you need to lay down or even what you can do to pace it all down rather than being caught up in the race others are trying to make you run..

Photo by Erwan Hesry on Unsplash

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If there is one message I bang on about when I am speaking it is the power of hope. It is a guarantee in life that nothing will remain the same. Change will happen therefore hope plays a big role in how we perceive the change.

I can clearly remember moments in time where I thought I wish I could stop the clock and stand still in this very moment with these very people because I am loving what I am doing right now.

Times I have travelled on teams and loved it, the day I got married, buying our first home together, my three years training for ministry at college and living in community (although some days that did grate), moments spent with my parents, doing crazy things with close friends. We all want to stay in the moment but those moments will change and we can’t recapture them as they are unique times and seasons.

I remember one early morning in a Ugandan village sat on the veranda reading my Bible and watching the world go by as people collected water before the hot sun. I still sense the memory of that moment thinking to myself this is amazing and I love it. I went back to that place a couple of years ago and it didn’t produce the same feeling as the people I shared the experience with were not with me. In fact I now felt sadness at the loss of that time and place. Change had happened and I was in a new season that was still amazing just different.

I was now with different people doing different things. Life is not supposed to be lived on repeat or hope would have no purpose. We can not recapture the past but only hope for the new. If we lived life on repeat it could be seen as strange behaviour because God has so much more for us to see and be part of. He is very much into our personal development.

The old ways and things we do will become worn out and we will need operate in hope to bring the different into being. Scripture communicates that these three remain in life “faith, hope and love.” Hope brings faith to the heart of those who desperately need change from a difficult situation. I have sat on the streets with women in addiction and heard hope in their heart for a different way of life only to sit with them years later in cafe and see that hope had worked it’s wonder and change had come. Such a privilege to watch that happen. God is often active and we don’t even know it.

So hope really is everywhere. I hope I do not stay the same, doing the same things with the same people. Change will come it is inevitable so have hope and walk it out in faith with love as you go. Wisdom states “to everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven” Ecclesiastes 3:1

Tag: change

Offload the baggage

Hope is Everywhere