EMPTY YOUR POCKETS

I once heard a man say that everytime that you are hurt by something someone says.........or an action that is done to you and you rehearse that offense over and over in your mind it is like picking up a rock and putting it in your pocket.  Before long if you don't deal with the issue you are weighed down by the EXTRA weight that you are carrying and you may not even know it.  Others will be able to see it, your actions will demonstrate it,  but you will be clueless that it even exist.  In a message that I listened to this morning.........CHARLES STANLEY...............he calls it UNLOADING YOUR BAGGAGE.  No matter who we are or what kind of family we had or didn't have, we all have some kind of issue(s).........or baggage or rocks that we drag around with us.  It is up to us, how long we will travel around with the LOAD.    Hebrews 12:1-3, Paul says to STRIP OFF EVERY weight that slows us down....................and RUN WITH ENDURANCE the race that God has set before us.  He goes on to say we can only do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus.  By the way...............the man that I quoted earlier went on to say (after the murder of his son by a family member) that he didn't want to carry that rock in his pocket for the rest of his life.  See he knew that he would need to forgive..........even the one who didn't deserve his forgiveness, and the best way he could practice running with endurance was to empty his pockets and strip of that extra weight?  What about you & me?  What might God be showing you today that would allow you to run like the wind?  WITHOUT dragging anything EXTRA? Maybe that phone call.......or email............or act of kindness to an undeserving one would be a FIRST STEP to releasing the power of God upon your life. Open my eyes .............to my own failures O God.............Restore me............and give me a new walk I pray.