How long does your luggage sit in your home after a vacation before you unpack it?  I was talking with a young bride yesterday and she said her husband just unpacked his suitcase yesterday, because she made him, and they’d been home five days.  She was shocked that anyone would go five days without unpacking.  I have friends who will live out of their suitcase in their house until all of the clean clothes are used up and the suitcase is empty.  I’m someone who comes home and unpacks everything before I go to bed the first night.  I don’t like clutter, and that includes suitcases in my floor.
In life many of us have become pretty good at living out of our emotional suitcase without ever fully unpacking it.  Some of us may be too lazy to unpack things that need to be dealt with and put away, but most don’t want to have to deal with the unpacking process.  We don’t know what to do with some things.  We don’t know where they go.  It’s like when my daughter empties the dishwasher, there’s always a thing or two she doesn’t know what to do with so she just leaves it sitting out on the counter.
Unfortunately, emotional things that aren’t unpacked and dealt with or are just left sitting around us in our lives can harm us or cause problems at the very least.  Jesus loves to help people unpack.  In fact, He’s an expert at it.  He tells us in Psalm 55:22, “Cast your cares on the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous fall.”  In case we missed that when reading His Word, He tells us again in 1 Peter 5:7, “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.” 
Jesus wants to help us with all of those things we don’t know what to do with or the things we worry about, but we have to surrender them to Him so He can take care of them.  Have you ever tried to fix a toy for a child while his hands are still grasping the toy tightly?  It doesn’t work.  You can’t turn the toy over and look at the whole situation to see what needs to be done.  If you try, you end up hurting the child.  You have to get the child to release the toy into your care in order to properly fix it for them.  The same is true with our trials and troubles in life.  We have to completely release them to the Lord.  The word “cast” means to throw or hurl, completely releasing.  That’s what Jesus calls us to do with our cares and concerns.
Is there something in your life you need to unpack and release to Jesus?  Has it been taking up space, causing you to have to walk around it or trip over it?  It doesn’t have to remain.  Jesus is ready and willing to unpack it for you and put it away, if you’ll allow Him to do it.  It’s up to you.
*I will be out of the office June 18th- 22nd.  Have a blessed week and I’ll meet you back here on the 25th of June.