"Then you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free." ~ John 8:32

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Unloading Emotional Baggage

Emotional baggage is a heavy weight, a weight you were never meant to carry.  I define emotional baggage as the sum total of all the negative experiences you've had that have warped the image of who you really are and were meant to be.

Why do we accumulate emotional baggage and how can we unload it? 

Here is a simple explanation.  When God created you, He created you with a plan for your life.  That plan included only blessings. But Satan also has a plan for your life, and his plan is the exact opposite of God's plan for you. Satan's plan includes only curses.

Because our original parents, Adam and Eve, messed up God's original plan through their rebellion against Him, God had to set up Plan B.  Plan B was the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  In other words, by His death and resurrection, Jesus restored the blessings of Plan A.  But to benefit from this restoration of blessings, one must accept Jesus Christ as the Savior through Whom these blessings become ours.  This acceptance of Christ is called justification and means becoming right with God. There is no other way to become right with God except through Jesus Christ. Jesus said, "I am THE WAY, THE TRUTH, and THE LIFE. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6, emphasis mine).

Once you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, He begins the process of helping you unload your emotional baggage. This process is called sanctification, or becoming whole and set apart from the effects of Satan's curse. 

Two important steps are involved in unloading our emotional baggage. We will talk about these two steps in future posts, but, for now, I will simply mention them. They are:

1) Surrendering our wills completely to God's will;
2) Reprogramming our thinking to align with God's thinking as found in the Bible.

If you are carrying emotional baggage that is causing you great pain, or even just a little pain, begin unloading it now.  Start by accepting Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord if you have not already done so.  Once you have accepted Christ as your Savior and Lord, begin reading the Bible, also called the Word of God. As you read it and apply it to your life, you will notice that, little by little, the emotional pain will decrease and you will feel more light-hearted and free as our compassionate Lord unloads the baggage from your heart and soul.