Sharing an earlier post….

One of the hardest lessons I am learning is to let go. Let go of trying to control the outcome. I think the first step in even being able to grasp the concept of letting go of control is realizing we don’t have control. So where do you go from there? It feels like standing at the edge of a cliff and looking down and your head starts swirling. You want to step back where it’s safe.

In the Book of Job are chapters of people grappling with loss of control and how to step away from the cliff edge and no one more than Job himself. He couldn’t understand why he was plunged into plague after unrelenting plague and left to sit in dust questioning why God allowed everything to happen to him, a righteous man. His friends came and they too grappled with Job sitting there in all his misery and they couldn’t even speak for seven days and nights….and then they began to reason with Job with their own explanations that they felt would pull him away from the cliff edge.

In verse 38-41 God speaks to Job. You should read it sometime. Can we do one thing that God does? Can we create the oxygen we breathe; the water our parched throats long for; the warmth of the sun? I can’t. If I can’t create all that exists and sustain it, how can I know what is best for my loved ones or for any of us? And therein lies the rub: we see right now, at the cliff edge, God sees eternity….who has the better perspective?

Our Mom passed away last April. My sister and I couldn’t control the events that led up to her last months with us and it was a helpless feeling because we didn’t know what would happen next though we knew she would not survive the last infection. A helpless and frightening place to be. My brother-in-law was such a help because he would remind us she’s in God’s hands.

Every thing is in God’s hands. Then Job replied to the Lord: “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted. You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.” Job 42:1-3. Verse 5: “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.”

I don’t have the knowledge to direct the lives of those I love. God does. I am learning ever so slowly but ever so surely to let go and trust God and now my prayer can be a sincere let Your will be done and I can mean it with all my heart. I can get out of His way and instead of standing at the edge of the cliff of my fears, I can look to Him and trust His love whatever the outcome because I can’t see the outcome in its’ entirety but God can.

Jesus came to do the will of His Father which was also His will. That was His joy and He would not be turned away from it. Even in the garden before His arrest he was able to pray, Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will. Mark 14:36. He trusted His Father completely. He let go. His last words were It is finished. John 19:30. He let go and trusted His Father and it was finished…the most beautiful words of trust. We read further when Mary went to the tomb to tend to His body that she couldn’t find Him, and he said, simply, “Mary.” Then Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and Your God.” Verses 16-17.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:11-13.

God is always there and His promises are sure. We can trust Him. We can let go and let Him. Let go!