Learning to let go...

Perhaps like me, God has been teaching you the art of Letting Go. Letting go of the old in order to embrace the new. Letting go of what is not working so that He can bring to me what is. Letting go of trying to fix it or work it out on my own...and letting Him bring His perfect will and plans into my life.

Letting go of the old ideas that are not based on the THE living WORD of God but soul-draining stuff grafted on my mind over years of listening to what the world has to say...simply because what God has to say is contrary to the lies I've been bombarded with all my life. Lies and misconceptions like from the poem, Invictus, by William Ernest Henley, which I had to learn in high school, "I am the master of my fate the captain of my soul."

Then ushered in by the Madison Avenue ad agencies was the "me generation.” The world instructed me to look into the mirror and repeat affirmations like, "it all about me and my inner child." And let's forget the golden-arched message "you deserve a break today." What I deserved was death by inverted crucifixion but what I got was God's unmerited favor! He sent his only son, Christ Jesus to die on the cross for me and my sins; so that I could have life and that more abundantly. I'll be honest with you. It would be extremely difficult for you to pry my "only" cup of coffee out of my grasp--even at the expense of 3rd degree burns on my hands. Give up my only son? Any son? Any child? For anybody? Unthinkable! No way, ever!

Yes, letting go of the hype and replacing it with God's truths. Letting go of the bitterness so He can replace it with His Love. Letting go of the anger so He can replace it with His peace that surpasses all human understanding--especially mine. (Philippians 4:7)

Letting go of the plans and dreams I have for myself or allowed others to force-feed me so that He can orchestrate into my life His perfect plans prepared long before I was born. (Jeremiah 29:11-13)

Letting go of the fear-based procrastination and embracing the life and reality of God's words, "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." (2nd Timothy 1:5) Letting go of all that's broken in my life--relationships--emotions--ideas--concepts--beliefs about myself and others.

LETTING IT ALLLLLLLLL GOOOOOOOOOOO. The burdens, the frustrations, the hopelessness, trying to understand the profundity of life when His ways are so far and above our ways and His thoughts higher than our thoughts could ever hope to be. (Isaiah 55:9) The most viable and empowering solution eludes me like my own shadow in the blazing afternoon sun -- Free-Falling back into the all-powerful and loving arms of God and RESTING. Resting like David who in Psalm 131 wrote, "I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me." (Psalm 131:2)

A group of us discussed such things in the last Feast on THE WORD Gathering. The Lord brought to my remembrance this poem which I printed, distributed and now, I feel led to share with you.

"Broken Dreams"

As children bring their broken toys
With tears for us to mend,
I brought my broken dreams to God,
Because He was my friend.
But then instead of leaving Him,
In peace to work alone,
I hung around and tried to help,
With ways that were my own.
At last, I snatched them back and cried,
"How can you be so slow?"
"My child," He said, "What could I do?
"You never did let go.

Author Unknown

© 2005 Stanice Anderson www.stanice.com