This month's sermon series has taken us to some pretty dark places. We have talked about regret, past sin, lost dreams, hurt, pain, and abuse. As we have taken an inventory of the baggage of our lives we have seen how the past has affected our present and can affect our future. As we have come face to face with this pain, we have resolved no longer to hide from it, run from it, repress it or suppress it. Our baggage is ours. We own it and we take responsibility for it.

As we bring these dark memories in the light, we find that as we face it we can begin to free it. God wants us to be healed and whole. He has forgiven our past, and he wants to heal us from the pain. He can takes our past mistakes and turn them into present glory. He can work through it, use it, and transform us by it. We just have to let him. Then we can say with David, "Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again, from the depths of the earth you will bring me up." (Psalm 71:20)

What do you have to release to God? What dark thing needs to be brought into the light? What loss does God want to restore in your life?