Fathers and Mothers: Devotions from Time of GraceSample

"Laying a Foundation: Let God Handle Your Baggage

I love people watching at airports. A common sight is a small person ragging a huge load of baggage piled up higher than he or she is tall. Does that sound like your life? Dragging a pile of fear, guilt, failure, and messes that is taller than you?

The Bible’s many human stories teach us the dirty secret of life--we’re all messes. What about the people who don’t look like they have problems? Well, maybe they just hide it better. Can you imagine how long the list would be if we inventoried all our regrets and failures? Maybe you’re burdened by maxed-out credit cards. Are you bleeding over the ripping apart of your family? Have your children made such bad choices that you feel like a failure? Or possibly does everything seem overwhelming? You force yourself to put on a happy face, but you are barely holding things together.

Maybe God has allowed your messes to pile up to the point where you are ready to let him be your baggage handler. Behind all of our troubles is sin. Sin makes us fear that God won’t help us, or worse, that he will just get angrier and pile on the punishment. Here are some sweet words from the apostle John: “I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of [Jesus’] name” (1 John 2:12).

If God forgives you, you can forgive yourself. If God likes you, you can like yourself again. If God will reveal the way out of your problems in his time, you can wait in peace. Baggage? What baggage?"