Let Go and Let God

“Let Go and Let God”

By Pastor Alli Munsey

October 17, 2021

“You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

“You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

“You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.

“You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.

“You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for.

“You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

“You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.

“You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom.

“Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.

Matthew 5:3-12 (MSG)

There is a concept of losing something to gain something. In life, maybe we win by learning how to lose. Sometimes we need to learn how to lose the bitterness. We need to learn how to lose the offense. We need to learn how to lose the fear. We need to learn how to lose the past. When we lose the things that are holding us back, we can pick up the good things--the things that are full of faith and that God has in store for us, the relationships that Jesus has brought into our life. Maybe we need to learn how to lose a little to win.

When we learn to lose or surrender our lives, our ideas, our ways, and opinions to who God is, it is then that we start to experience the abundant life. Faith is often talked about as something that we hold onto, but faith may be less about holding on and more about letting go. It is hard to grasp faith because faith is surrender. Faith is trust, and that’s what trust is--surrender. It is taking a step, believing that God will take a step towards us, believing in faith that doing the right thing will produce the right results.

Sometimes it is hard to believe in faith because when we look around in our world, it can seem like everyone else is getting results except for us. However, the Bible says that we are blessed when we go through trials. We are blessed when we are persecuted because then the world identifies us not as its own. If we walk through hardship, we must know that it is because Jesus is with us, and we don’t fit into the world’s ways. Life gets hard when we try to conform our faith with culture, and we try to mix God’s ways into our ideas of how we are supposed to live out our Christian life. Instead, we must fully surrender to God’s ways and his will. Sometimes, we just have to learn to let go and let God. We need to let go and take a hold of what God has for us.

Holding onto the wrong things may burn us on the way down. There are things that we anchor ourselves to that end up hurting us, such as offense, old relationships, jobs, and things from our past. But Jesus says that when we let go of the rope and past seasons, he will show us an abundant life. He came that we might have life and have it more abundantly.

We can experience a full life even in the middle of a storm. Jesus rested in a boat where the waves looked like it was going to take the full ship down. Yet, Jesus slept peacefully in the boat because he knows who controls the winds and the waves. We must ask if we know who controls the storms in our life. Jesus came so that we could be redeemed back to the Father. Because of that, we don’t have to be in fear. We don’t have to be in lack. We don’t have to be nervous about what the future holds because we know who holds it. Sometimes we put too much emotion into the wrong things.

Trying to control things is like trying to control the seasons. If we can’t change the season, maybe we should pray about the season. We should ask what God is trying to teach us through that season. If we just complain and get upset, we will never see the opportunity of what God has in front of us. But Jesus is saying to learn to walk with him and work with him, and he will show us the rhythms of grace. We just need to learn to get in step with him.

A few quick thoughts on letting go:

1. Prioritize Jesus

Matthew 6 tells us to seek first the kingdom of Heaven and everything else will be added unto us. Most of us would agree that order matters. Our schedule and our bank account are good indicators of our priorities and what matters to us.

2. Practice his Presence

God is very clear about his love for us. He sent his only son to die on a cross for us. We tend to complicate God’s love for us and dramatize it. To be in his presence is to know that God has a plan for us. He has good things in store for us in this life.

3. Let your prayers persevere

We must ask ourselves whether we are complaining or praying. Conviction is from the Holy Spirit, but condemnation is from the enemy. Worry and anxiety are a result of misplaced burdens.

Reflection/Discussion Questions:

1. How can you prioritize Jesus in this season?

2. What are you holding onto that is not from God, and that you need to let go of?

3. Have you surrendered a trial or tribulation that you are going through this season over to God?

4. How can you be more intentional about praying instead of complaining?