I want to enter the new year light. I want to enter the new year NEW. Therefore, it is time to unpack.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2. Cor.5,17 NIV)
When I started dating my boyfriend, this verse was pivotal in how we wanted to build and shape our relationship. We were aware that we both had baggage we brought into each other’s lives and we knew this truth was something we wanted to cling to. The old has gone, the new is here.
We do not want any of us to be defined by our pasts. BUT in reality there is stuff of emotional baggage to unpack before the new can enter and be enjoyed to the full. This becomes so obvious in a relationship!
What we personally experience is that the conflicts arising in our relationship rarely has much to do with the real situation in front of us. It makes sense with these facts I’ve heard that normally a conflict is only 10 % about the current situation. 90 % of the conflict arises because of past emotions and fears in a similar situation.
The past can easily have power over us if we do not intentionally help each other unpack it.
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A suitcase that needs unpacking was lately revealed to me. It was a suitcase I dragged along that caused recurring conflict in our relationship.
Thankfully, God helped me see differently. Clearly. So that I do not keep punishing the one in front of me for the mistakes made by the one behind me.
Holy Spirit showed me how I am still carrying a suitcase of emotional baggage because of past betrayal. A betrayal that led to hurt, pain, fear, anger, jealousy, doubt & distrust.
Ugly, I know.
I know too though that I’m not alone in this.
Everyone comes with baggage.
Therefore, we resolved early on in our relationship to be courageous and to not fear the shadowy side of the past that every one of us carries.
A part of being courageous is to own our own journey and the wounds it has caused. Another part of being courageous is to be willing to “feel it to heal it.”
It takes courage to do so but it is necessary if we want to live and stand firm in the new life that has already been purchased for us. It is necessary to be courageous in these ways when we want to refuse to let shadows of our past hold our futures hostage.
Do yourself a favor and read Graham Cooke’s stuff full of revelation!! I love this quote from ”Provision & Partnership”:
“The place of struggle is always the place of your breakthrough, but the first thing that has to be broken through in a struggle is you.
It’s your mindset, it’s your willingness to trust, your willingness to believe the Lord, and your willingness to step into a miracle.”
Yes. Struggle – past – present – future – can become birthing ground for miracles when we choose not to let our past define, destroy, deter or defeat us. We can let it refine us and move on and leave it behind us.
Our baggage isn’t too heavy for Jesus! With him our past does not have to make us bitter. It can make us better.
New days, new beginnings & new chances await us. New new new. Our Father makes ALL things new.
Jesus is with us. Love goes before us. Therefore, I’ll choose trust for the new year! To not trust will just make me miserable anyway!
Let’s pack light for 2016 and keep pressing forward. (Phil 3,13)
Future, I’m so ready for ya.
“Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new.
The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it!
All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other.” (2 Cor 5,17 MSG)
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