Just keep letting go

The Lord is telling me a lot lately to let go.  This is a constant.  In my thoughts, in my ways, all of it, to simply keep letting go.

I can hold too tightly to whatever I think I "need" at any given moment.  God is showing me that this is a constant source of underlying stress in my life, if I stay with that way of thinking and being.

Life is so much more enjoyable when I simply let go, relax, and trust God to handle and deal with everyone and everything in my life that is causing, or may potentially cause, me emotional stress or discomfort.

I believe this can be seen as training! if indeed there are "worse" days ahead for us collectively, then we'd best get used to letting go of it all now so that we may stay in that wonderful peace that we have in Christ no matter what is going on around us.

Whatever we grasp, we lose.  Whatever we hold with open hands, upward to God, I believe remains ours.  

Ultimately, Jesus let go of His very life for us.  He, of all people, could have "held on" to His rights, His Lordship over the whole situation, and saved Himself.  Instead, He lovingly chose to save all of us instead.

This holds much weight on so many levels.  As we let go, die in much smaller ways daily, we too become a light to show others the way to salvation.  We do this not my "explaining" so much as we do by our carefree manner.  We live as if "God's got this" in the way we show utter trust in Him no matter what we experience, see, or whatever ways the world is going to pot!

This is in no way apathy.  Quite the contrary.  We do care about what is happening in the world today.  But unlike those who do not know God, we are in the know.  We believe that it is all panning out exactly as God wills, though it may appear for a short while that the evil forces are "winning" instead.  

This, too, requires our letting go.  "But Lord, this should not be!"  As if He doesn't already know!  But any sort of panic response is not from God.  Any sort of surprise at just how awful things are becoming should not be in us at all.  

Why not?  Because Jesus already gave us a heads up!  Read Luke 21:8-34.

This is not to say that we don't do our part to work toward justice and making things better as much as God calls us to.

But the ultimate letting go should become part of our everyday lives, I believe.  Some of us are more prone to anxiety to start with.  Some are calmer by nature.  Either way, we all must become better at this letting go of everything and everyone.  For it is all temporary, kids.  God help us "fixers!"

Jesus was in a state of constant letting go, I believe.  He let go of the mistreatment from the Pharisees.  He let go of the "right" to defend Himself.  He let go of people's responses and reactions to Him, trusting that God's plan for His life was being worked out perfectly because of His constant connection to His Heavenly Father.  

He let go of constantly being misunderstood.  He let go of being called "evil," of the devil, when He performed miracles on the Sabbath.  I mean when you think about it, Jesus could have lived in a constant state of stress!  He knew that there were those constantly plotting to get rid of Him.  He lived with the frustration of even His own disciples not fully understanding Him, His ways, His teachings. 

But Jesus knew that He was only here for a short time.  And though we may live past the age of 33, so are we, kids!

The sooner we get good at seeing our lives as truly "just passing through," the more peace we will have.  The better we will get at truly letting go.

Letting go shows (proves?) our total trust in the Lord.  Letting go of our own understanding (see Proverbs 3:5, or better yet, click here to listen to my song!) produces more faith in God and His omniscience.

So let's go!  Let's keep on letting go! True peace lies on the other side of it.