Whenever we camp out or travel out of town, I carry too much of my belongings. I try to bring things that I know I wouldn’t need but I still carry them just in case I needed them. So most of the time I end up with too heavy and too many bags. I have a backpack, a handbag, and frequently two other huge bags. I would be struggling to carry them all at once but since it’s all my belongings, I hide the discomfort in my face because after all, I chose to bring them with me.
Comparatively, in our Christian life, we bring things that we don’t really need in our life for eternity. It may be a habit, attitude, possession, or relationship. We bring with us things that hinder us from going through the door of Christlikeness.
On the first day of my Purple Book journey, which is discipleship training, one of our speakers told us that in order to follow Jesus in our lives, we must pass through a narrow door – a door that will require us to leave everything that we don’t need. She told us that we can only develop the characters of Christ if we have passed through that filtering and refining door.
Most of the believers today are still struggling to produce the fruit of Spirit because they haven’t unloaded those habits, attitudes, possessions, or relationships that plug them. Here are some of the few reasons why:
- We find happiness in them. We can’t let them go because we love the happiness they bring to us even if it’s ungodly.
- We are used to them. These are habits we’ve grown into and removing them from our life will make us uncomfortable.
- We can’t let it go. We believe that removing them, even how intoxicating they are, is an impossible thing. We struggle with it but we don’t consider that change is possible.
Carrying this extra baggage only makes us suffer because it keeps us away from our spiritual maturity. Assess yourself. See why you’re not moving forward. See why you’re not growing. See why you’re struggling. Because when you finally see and let go of it, you’ll realize that is the first step in your spiritual transformation. It may be difficult at first, but trust me, God will surely let essential things stay and let the unnecessary ones go away.
Article by Chlarissa Mae
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