Let Go

One of the hardest things for us to do is to let go.  This fear of loss seems to be unbearable.  The thought of letting go of our vision of how life should be, or how we should be, or how others should be, or how God should be, is like a looming boogey monster.  But when we let go, we come to a place where true faith in God’s goodness and trustworthiness can begin to take root in our heart as He replaces our own vision with His.

There was a book that was popular when I was a little girl called, “Where the Red Fern Grows.”  It’s a tear-jerker about a boy and his dogs. As Trump would say, “It’s a really terrific book, a fantastic book, everyone agrees it’s a great book.” There is a part in the story where it describes a trap devised by the boy to catch raccoons. A large hole is drilled down into a log and then tack nails are driven in, along the rim of the hole, all at an angle pointed toward the center.  Something shiny and desirable is placed in the bottom of the hole and then the trap is set. When the coon comes along and sees that shiny thing in the bottom of the hole, it reaches in, closes its fist around it and won’t let go. Its closed fist is too big to fit back out the hole because of the angled tack nails, which pierce the closed fist every time the coon tries to pull it out. No matter what, the coon won’t let go. Neither hunger nor approaching danger will cause the coon to release its treasure.

Satan uses this same sort of tactic.  He entices our hearts and imaginations to reach down into his trap to grasp at the desirable thing and close our heart and mind around it like a fist. But when we try to move forward with it, we find that we are trapped and become stuck because we won’t let go. Like the coon, all we have to do to be set free is to let go of the desirable shiny thing, and like the coon, we refuse. Like the coon, we hold onto the vain illusion even if it means we die while still holding onto it.  Our desire to hold on is stronger than our desire to be set free.

Jesus came to set mankind free.  He came to heal our hearts of their sickness.  He offers us a cross that will set us free, but many would rather hang onto the shiny thing that Satan has enticed their heart with. I’ve been down this road, I’ve struggled with holding onto what I envisioned my future to be versus letting go and allowing God to replace my vision with His. I’ve struggled with letting go of the image I tried to live up to, versus the image that God wanted to shape in me. I’ve struggled with letting go of who I wanted God to be, versus Who He truly is.  I’ve watched others vainly pursue human desires both outside the church and within it, since none of us are immune.  Satan works by luring us down a road of empty promises, a path lined by the desires of our own heart.  Humanity must know and understand that Satan weaponizes our own heart against us.  That is why it is critical that we allow God to examine it, so He can reveal to us the things that Satan could weaponize against us.

All Satan needs to succeed in his work against us is to keep us reaching for his lies instead of God’s truth. All he needs to succeed is to keep us reaching for our own vision, instead of God’s.  As the darkness continues to close in around us, and it will, we must let go of whatever shiny thing we have been holding onto.  We must let go and allow God to sift our hearts and replace our own vision with His.

"The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick--who can understand it? I, the Lord, search the heart; I test the mind to reward a man according to his way, by what his deeds deserve." (Jer 17:9,10)

"What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come in His Father's glory with His angels, and then He will repay each one according to what he has done." (Matt 16:26,27)

"You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.  I will be found by you," declares the Lord. (Jer 29:13,14)

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will fine; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." (Matt 7:7,8)