Moving On

Growing in grace is never easy.  We continue to move ahead in knowledge and wisdom trusting God for all things.  Moving into a closer relationship with God means shedding extra baggage that stands between us.  To shed baggage means we often have to change our whole way of thinking.  There are times when God tells us to wait and let Him work things out when we could easily get things started our own way.  God’s ways are higher than our ways and one of the most challenging things we face is waiting.

Baggage could also include habits and life styles that need to change.  Being set in our ways is never good when pressing on to a closer relationship with God is what pleases Him.  It’s easy to get comfortable remaining the same but being comfortable can hold us back.

There are ones coming to church to sit and listen yet they have been blessed with good singing voices while the choir seriously needs extra people.  There are gifted people who sew beautiful clothes but take their patterns and cloth to a seamstress because they would rather spend their time in a daily rut of activities.  These are only two examples of ways we can glorify God by just getting busy using talents He gave us.

Baggage could very well mean changing who we hang with.  A popular crowd doesn’t always guarantee quality friendships.  A good looking boyfriend or girlfriend does not guarantee a quality marriage if things continue to move in that direction.  A high dollar job earns only hardships if the boss is a bully or the job itself produces only pleasures of the world.

There are times to walk away and not look back.  Walking away from things that hold us back may be emotional but it does not mean we are closing our book of life.  We are moving to the next chapter that has just as much excitement as the last chapter.  When reading a book, we never read over and over the same chapter because we will never see the excitement at the end.  It’s the same with our book of life here on earth.  God’s mercies and blessings are new each day but it’s up to us to turn the page to see what God has for us. 

Hebrews 6:1a

Let us stop going over the same old ground again and again, always teaching those first lessons about Christ. Let us go on instead to other things and become mature in our understanding, as strong Christians ought to be.