There was once a little poem that I carried around with me when I was in my twenties and for the life of me, I cannot remember what happened to it. It’s about that very statement of “Letting Go and Letting God” without those exact words. I do have a terrible memory for some things but I remember the end part of that poem, though. The lead in to that portion is that it goes something like this at the end of the poem (partly paraphrased): I brought my broken dreams to God “and snatched them away from Him and said, “My God, why are you so slow?” and He said, “My child, you never did let go.””
Those words, while I am not sure if they are exact, have stayed with me for thirty plus years and through ALL of the many ups and downs, valleys and mountains of my life, so far. We’ve all been there, right? We are broken, beat down, weary and worn out from all of the things and worries and burdens that this world can give to us. We try our best to give all of those to God only to snatch them back from God when He takes some time to heal what is broken within us. We don’t give Him time. We want it right now and exactly the way that we think that it should be, but our God knows us so much better than we think. He also knows exactly what we need AND it will be better than what we even imagined when He is finished, but we refuse to give Him time to do so because we haven’t truly let go.
Consider this though…
Hebrews 11:1 states that, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” This means that it takes faith in believing that there is something out there for us that we can’t see but we have hope in our hearts for it. Our God waits for us to trust in Him to deliver what we actually need and not necessarily what we think that we need. It’s that season of waiting and promises and expectations that is the hardest for us to get through. When we let go of our ego, pride, shame, fear and let God do what He says that He will do for us, then all of those things that have kept us down are gone. We have to wait on Him to give us what we need and then we can have peace because we have been faithful through the time of waiting and promises and expectations. I think that’s a good deal! Don’t you agree? (Related post: Jehovah-Jirah: Name of God)
What did I learn from this? Patience and waiting is certainly not always my strong suit but I have learned so much from the many different directions that my life has gone over the last 35-40 plus years. It’s funny, but I can definitely say that I have certainly gained patience while waiting over that time period, as well. Now, I can see that I look through a different lens than what I did than when I was younger. I have learned to do more and more of letting go of things, situations, feelings, etc. and I am certainly more into letting God handle it. I cannot say that I am ALWAYS successful with that but I am definitely more in the 95%-99% range now, so I call that some really good odds, overall. (Related post: An Act of Faith)
So, what can you gain from this? Having faith in something that you cannot see is certainly a gradual thing. It can be a season of struggle as well. If you are struggling with that then I certainly recommend that you find someone that you trust whom you can talk to. I also recommend that you begin to read your Bible. This journey of faith can be lonely at times and can feel isolating but that is God’s doing as well. Your journey is specific to you and not everyone can understand that, nor will they always support you in it, either. Trust me, I know because it happened to me as well.
Just remember this… if you let go of what is keeping you down and let God take over, you will and can be pleasantly surprised by what He will do for you. He loves you and will give you something better than what you had before and that, I do know for a fact, does happen. (Related post: The God of Everything)
A Joyful Mission 