Overboard!

Have you ever got angry with yourself for carrying around things from your past; failures, guilt, regret, frustrations or fears? Some of those might be things you’re dealing with today. You wake up one morning and realize the bag of guilt-ridden bricks you’ve been hauling over your shoulder for years is beginning to cut into your flesh…leaving even more wounds.

For some of us, I suppose, the bag of guilt is our comfort. It’s all we know. It is our identity. Who would we be without it?

A few years ago Pastor Tom taught out of Acts 27 “The Shipwreck”. The ship that Paul is on inherits some trouble at sea. The crew, in their fear, made a couple poor decisions and the ship ended up in an even more compromising situation. They eventually stopped trying and gave in to the strong winds. Difficulties caused them to give up.

Jumping quite ahead here the storm continued to rage so they dropped several anchors and just waited and hoped for the best. They would come to find land one morning, a coastline that could be seen from the ship. The only way to get there would be to get rid of the anchors. They certainly wanted out of the storm and off that ship! In verse 40 it says, “So they cut off the anchors and left them in the sea.” I remember Pastor Tom saying along with this verse “release what bonds you”.

I have anchored myself for years over past failures, only to add more anchors for present failures. But it gets me nowhere, literally! If I’m trapped and stagnant because I choose to harbor and hold onto the past then I am not living fully the life God intended me to live.

Daily I have to choose to let go. It’s a flesh battle! I don’t want anchors holding me back. I want freedom to live in Christ. I want freedom to live for Christ and not myself.

So friends, do you have a bag of bricks to drop off the side of a mountain? How about anchors that need to be cut? It comes down to faith. Anchoring ourselves down says to God we don’t trust Him. Do you trust Him?