I can vividly remember being 9 years old and gripping the rope I was holding on to with force that would rival a Python gripping his latest soon to be meal…Nervousness was all over me like a bad suit and he had brought his friends fear and fear with him (yes, I said fear twice-apparently there is strength in numbers) , but – I being the stubborn hard headed punk I have always been , was determined to beat this…
Then it came – that one moment where this whole journey had led me to…The moment when I was forced to choose… To LET GO…
Seconds later I was submerged in the cool flowing waters of the Flint River..I HAD DONE IT!.. I had swung from the rope swing attached to the tree growing from the high bank of the river.. I had beaten the seemingly unbeatable , little did I realize that the unbeatable wasn’t the rope swing that dauntingly hung high above the Flint River – It was FEAR.
Fear , a true “4 letter word” If I have ever heard it.. While healthy fear is often referred to as “respect” and is the only way to begin to learn about God (Proverbs 1:7) – this is too often the fear we don’t practice. We give ourselves over to fear of failure,rejection,pain and a laundry list of other hosts that feed on the energy we give it..And with THAT fear , we open the door to sin and welcome it into our lives like the sickness it is – But , like every illness there is treatment -and in this case not JUST a treatment but a CURE…
LETTING GO.
For many of us , our understanding of “Letting go” is associated with weakness and it is in fact – quite the contrary. True strength comes from doing what we KNOW is right NO MATTER the consequence – This is the birth of COURAGE and beginning of the Process of Letting Go.. So allow me give this encouragement :
GIVE IN – Give in to the will of GOD by submission of your own will to HIS… Submission isn’t a power struggle but rather a mutual relationship of love ,humility and respect.. Understand the PRINCIPLE of submission and you’ll understand the PRACTICE of submission. – (1 Peter 1:14)
GIVE UP – Not as in failure , but but in Prayer.. Give the things that plague you to God. Psalm 118:5 says “Out of my distress I called on the Lord;the Lord answered me and set me free” ..
MOVE FORWARD – Giving in to the Lord and Giving up your problems to him in prayer is absolutely the right and best way to BEGIN – but a beginning is ONLY a BEGINNING if you move on..You MUST commit to moving away from where you came in to the fold ,lest you fall out.. For this read 2 Corinthians 5:17
Things are just things..and like everything around us -things decay and disintegrate..The harder you try to HOLD ON , the more they slip from your hands and take you with them on the path to destruction…Imagine for a second that you are at Heavens edge and God Almighty is standing there waving you to “come in” – only every time you make your attempt , you are blocked by a figure that you cant quite identify. The harder you try , the more its gets in your way..All the while God keeps bidding you to “Come in”..
Finally , you overcome your fear of what this figure will think of you, or what it might do to you ,or what it might say to others about you and you shove it to the floor and RUN TO THE LORD where he is patiently waiting for you to respond to his invitation..Just before getting to him you turn to look one last time at your menacing opponent only to realize that the ENTIRE time , the one in between you and the LORD – was YOURSELF..
What will keep you from God and his rest for you?..Nothing except YOURSELF and your FEAR…. So Let it GO – Let go of the rope that this life will ultimately hang you with and fall headlong into the cool flowing waters of Christ… In him there is no fear ,only love.. No weakness,only strength.. No labor , only rest…
Linkin Park’s song “Iridescent” says it better than I’ve heard in quite a while..In the last line of the chorus that chant”Do you feel cold and lost in desperation? You build up hope, but failure’s all you’ve known..Remember all the sadness and frustration..
And let it go.
I, for one , couldn’t agree more… The invitation to study the Bible is still open.. 😉
Revelation 21:4 -“ He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Guest post by Keith Stonehart from his blog Keith Stonehart is Dead
Godly Youth 