The Power of Letting Go

Often there’s nothing more frustrating than when you lose something that’s important to you. The day is definitely off to a bad start if you can’t remember where you put your car keys, your cell phone, or the computer file you worked on all day yesterday.

Everything else is put on hold until you find what you lost.

On the other hand, nothing is more exhilarating than finding something you thought might be gone forever. Jesus tells three stories about this kind of experience in Luke 15, where a lost sheep, lost coin, and lost son all were regained with great joy.

Have you ever had this kind of experience?

Take a look at the man in Matthew 13:44 who unexpectedly found “a treasure hidden in a field,” and you’ll find the key to living an adventurous, discovery-filled life. In fact, you may even say to yourself, “How could I have overlooked this ‘treasure’ for so long?”

The secret is amazingly simple, found in just two words. These words probably sound wimpy or even defeatist at first – yet they’re anything but that.

The words are filled with explosive power and potential, but this may not be obvious at first. It’s a lot like nuclear energy – power hidden away for millennia inside tiny atoms until activated.

Although this vital concept is found throughout the Bible, there’s a good chance you’ve never heard a sermon that spells it out so clearly.

So here it is, the forgotten key to a happy, impactful, and prosperous life:

Letting Go

God instructs us about this in Psalm 46:10, where the NASB says, “Cease striving [let go, relax] and know that I am God.” Dictionaries have other words for this principle: “surrendering, releasing, relinquishing, or yielding.”

You see, the secret to having God exalted in our lives is in simply letting go – relinquishing something we treasure and transferring it from our hands to His. Or, as Jesus told us, we must lose our life in order to find it (Luke 17:33).

An Extraordinary Life

Letting go can take your life from ordinary to extraordinary… from bland to blessed…from victim to victor…and from boring to bold. In contrast, nothing is duller or more depressing than trying to hold on to what you already have.

There was nothing extraordinary about the five loaves and two fish the disciples had on hand – until they let go of their supply into the hands of Jesus (Matthew 14:13-21). You see, it’s only when letting go takes place that God performs miracles and life gets exciting.

Why is it so easy to miss this powerful and life-changing principle? The answer is simple: Because of fear and unbelief, we tend to hang on to our meager resources rather than entrust them into the hands of God. How sad, for He has shown throughout history that He can do far more with resources than we can.

Jesus relinquished the rights and privileges of His heavenly life in order to embark on the great adventure of redeeming humankind and giving us a right to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Still today, He beckons us to a life of letting go, where it is “more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).

Friend, what could God do with that “thing” you are holding onto today…refusing to trust Him and let it go? You’ll never know until you loosen your grip and give it to Him. That’s when the adventure starts and the life of purpose returns.