Latest Devotion
Excess Baggage is Costly!
By: Kim Garrett
Saturday, January 10, 2026
Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved. Psalm 55:22 (NKJV)
Once a teacher, always a teacher. When I worked in education, it didn't matter if I was in the classroom or an office: I carried my personal items in a black backpack. I'm retired now, but whenever I'm headed out to teach a class at church, I still carry my backpack. Over time, I keep adding items such as Bibles, journal notes... whatever I need for my class. But if I keep adding things, it can quickly become heavy.
Therefore, it made sense to set up a separate backpack for my husband so he could carry his own "necessary items" to work. When we leave the house together, it's a probably a sight to be seen; a 68-year-old and a 75-year-old carrying their backpacks on a mission for Jesus. We've become so used to carrying our backpacks, we miss having them when we leave them at home.
Yet, I've noticed both of us have something in common; no matter how many items we add, we quickly adapt to the excess weight. The heaviness becomes our new normal until someone else picks up our backpack and comments on how heavy it is. That's right—it can take someone else to draw our attention to the heavy weight we've grown accustomed to.
This can also happen spiritually! If we aren't careful, we can get complacent about carrying around extra baggage or weight God never asked us to carry. For example, the heaviness of past hurts, guilt, shame, and unforgiveness are all unnecessary burdens God doesn't want us carrying.
...let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, Hebrews 12:1 (NKJV)
The truth is, you and I were created to need God. Carrying around heavy baggage steals our joy, and it hinders our ability to run our race. Hebrews 12:3 goes on to say carrying heavy burdens will make us sluggish, weary, and easily discouraged. Our spiritual growth will slowly cease (Galatians 5:7), and unconfessed sin might even gain a foothold.
Why do we hold on to the emotional and spiritual baggage God never intended us to carry? Like my heavy backpack, we've grown accustomed to the weight! But God's Word says every unnecessary weight we are carrying has a costly price attached to it. Therefore, we must be intentional about laying them aside. Instead of carrying your burdens, give them to your creator. Trust God, and ask Him to carry your burdens before you lose strength!