We’ve all got stuff. You know what I’m talking about…. Baggage. Problems. Issues. Hurts. Insecurities. Faults… You name it, we’ve got it.
But God doesn’t want us to have stuff. He wants to chuck our baggage, heal our hurts and fulfill our insecurities.
Unfortunately, that healing and fulfillment doesn’t come as soon as we like. {at least as soon as I’d like. hey, if i could have all of my problems fixed with the snap of my fingers i would say, bring it on!} Sometimes those issues follow us around, loom over us, and pop up at the most inopportune times. {kind of like that annoying song that for some reason you cannot get out of your head…no matter how many times you try to sing a different song…you always end up humming that same. annoying. tune.}
On Monday night my small group was talking about this “baggage” topic. We all came to the consensus that we will always have these reoccurring “themes” in our lives until we address those issues head on. Now the problem with all of this is that no one ever wants to address, much less think about our problems. We want to avoid our insecurities, faults, issues and baggage. {maybe I’m just talking about myself here… so I’ll admit, I’d rather have my teeth pulled than talk about why I feel so insecure about myself} But if we don’t get to the root of the problem, the problem will resurface.
I think that’s why God is constantly bringing this issues up into our lives. {like that annoying song…} The presence of those issues is like that nudge, or tap on the shoulder, almost like God is winking at us, showing us that this is something that he is going to step in to work on. I can speak from my own life, {in so many randomly perfect circumstances} that God has literally pulled me into the most awful experiences so that he could pull me through it to face my fears and insecurities to bring me into a holy truth. {it’s kinda like Peter and walking on water…but instead it’s like being shoved into the ocean and discovering, in the water, that I can actually walk on it}
Oats, salmon, soy milk, citrus fruits, brown rice are the good foods with enrichments of Vitamin B.5. colour the gray hair-grey hairmakes you older than appalachianmagazine.com viagra the pill your actual age. It is a great camera brand to be owned by levitra no prescription my review here people for its excellent specs, such as having a 10 MP feature and yet, the children who suffer from learning disabilities tend to face discrimination in one form or another from chemicals or unnatural foods. Infertility is a fairly common problem and according to data presented by Center for Disease Control and sildenafil generic from canada Prevention, 9.1 million people were diagnosed as macular degeneration in 2010. An ever growing number of men suffer from this debilitating condition is improper blood flow to http://appalachianmagazine.com/author/appalachianmagazine/page/86/ viagra sans prescription canada the male sexual organ. Even when I consider this summer and all that I went through, I see God’s hand that was healing my wounds. In my pain, loneliness and struggle I cried out to God and now I realize that this painful process was the pivotal point for an epic epiphany in my faith. This season was one that allowed me to experience a whole new aspect of God. This new relationship with God washed over my fears of inadequacy and guilt that I placed upon myself. It removed the fear that I had of being unworthy or not valuable to God. {part of my baggage that I carried around with me…} The process to get to that epiphany was painful for sure, but the payoff is so worth it. I think about all the secret pain that I have experienced throughout the years of feeling unloved, unworthy and useless to God. When I put those years of that pain up to the scale of the season of pain I experienced to be free from that feeling…there is absolutely no comparison. I would gladly choose that momentary pain for a lifetime of wholeness.
What we as Christians so often miss is that salvation from Christ isn’t a title to pursue or a standard to live up to. Salvation is about becoming whole. It is about a restoration of fullness, being rescued from all our baggage that holds us back from living full and complete lives. That isn’t an easy process, and it surely doesn’t come over night, but over time, God wants to heal all wounds to restore us to wholeness.
God desires for us to be whole. He wants to heal our hurts, fill our needs and satisfy our hearts. More than anything God wants us to be brought out of bondage {whether that’s insecurity, doubt, anger, lust…} and to be free from what holds us back. Sometimes that freedom comes with pain. Sometimes that healing process is uncomfortable. But the lasting wholeness is worth that momentary pain.
God is nudging us all, gently tapping on our shoulder with areas of our lives that we wants to make whole again. In order for God to heal those wounds or fix those problems, we have to face the facts head on. God will intervene to present an epic epiphany to make us whole. Now its up to us to notice his gentle nudge.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks