Let go and let God (II) Practice

Perhaps the places we Christians find it most difficult to “let go and let God,” is with our loved ones who are not following the Lord. When we want something so badly, we far too often try to do God’s job for Him either by nagging, controlling or manipulation. And when we do this, He needs to deal with us first. This is a little bit like an over eager older sibling taking over the parental role. The point is that it is not the the older sibling place to discipline, and so when this happens, the parent needs to deal with that first. But applying this to our loved ones is hard, and we likely have blown it many times. All is not lost however, because God has promised to work out all things for the good, even our mistakes, for those who love and obey Him, and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).

Letting go of things we need to let go of, and letting God do His part takes practice. It involves getting to know ourselves, God and our loved ones. And the practice God gives us is designed to help us grown in knowledge in all three of these areas. How many of us once thought we knew best and were far from willing to listen to those God has put over us? Perhaps we are still there? But God gives us the opportunity to learn through practice in every negative circumstance. In particular each time, we do something, or say something in these relationships that turns out badly, is an opportunity to ask the Lord if, where and how we have messed up. And if we have messed up (it’s not always the case), we can ask Him to help us to do better the next time. It takes practice! Part of this is our learning why we react the ways that we do. The Lord may want to uncover some hurt, habit or hang up that is driving our behaviour.

The supreme Scriptural example of letting go and letting God comes in the story of the prodigal son. I am talking about the father who absorbed the insult of his son essentially wishing he were dead, by demanding his inheritance while his father was still alive. The son thought he knew what he wanted, and the only way for him to learn he was wrong was the hard way. And the father knew his son well enough to know that the only way to win his son back was to let him go. And he trusted God to do the work he could not. When we are wanting others to listen to us and they are not, we need to pay attention to what God is trying to teach us through the difficulties. In particular we need to work on ourselves. He promises that the (spiritually) blind see, and the (spiritually) deaf will hear, but only WHEN with His help, we have strengthen our (spiritually) weak hands, and made firm our (spiritually) feeble knees (Isaiah 35:3-5).

Father, these lessons do not come easy to us, and many times we have failed. It is true however that You are at work in us when we fully submit to You (Philippians 2:12,13). And I want to thank You this morning for Your promise that Your will make all things beautiful in Your time (Ecclesiastes 3:11). In the meantime Father, help us to fully trust You to do Your part when You call us to “Let go and let God” in Jesus Name Amen