I Am Letting Go

Holding onto hurt validates your emotions in the moment, but if continued it will set you into a constant victim’s mentality. On a few occasions I have asked God to break the chains of heartbreak, He does and I still choose to hold onto them. I think many of us have been in a similar situation. All you have to do is drop them. Those chains are in your past and they are no longer weighing you down. Stop holding onto what He’s already broken off just because you don’t know any different.

I went to a Hillsong concert last September and it was during a time that I felt heavy and overwhelmed and anything but peaceful. I worshiped my heart out that night and just gave it all to God. I noticed when I was walking out after the concert there was a sign on the door that said “No Re-Entry.” God immediately said, “You will not walk out of those doors the same as you walked in. You are free and there is no reason to carry unnecessary burdens.” That doesn’t just go for arena doors, but that goes for church doors or any door that God closes and opens a new one. God says, ”I’m closing this door and you aren’t going to re-enter this path, but I’m going to open up a new door for you to walk through. You will have to trust me and you will have to let go of what was behind the closed door because that is in the past.” Learn from the past and move on. There is no point in looking back just to sit and wallow in something we cannot change. You are wasting your moments to change things in the future by focusing so heavily on the past. God will never leave you and He wants to move forward with you.

Ask yourself what it is that is holding you back from moving forward. Identify it, now declare it out of your mouth that you are letting it go and will no longer let it hinder you from what God is doing in your life.

I am letting go of past hurts.

I am letting go of what I cannot change.

I am letting go of fear of the unknown and replacing it with faith for the future.

I am letting go of _________.

If we can be honest for a minute, letting go of something means that we are still holding onto it. A lot of times that creates a barrier for us from moving on. One arm is still behind us holding onto our past and we wonder why it is so difficult to walk forward with God. There was a study done where a monkey put his hand in a hole and he grabbed a banana and the opening wasn’t big enough for both his hand and the banana. He wouldn’t let go of the fruit and therefore couldn’t be set free. How many times are you on the verge of breakthrough and all you have to do is let go?

After you let go, remember that consistently looking back will hinder you just as much as holding onto it did. I am going to let all things that are not of God go, and let them fall off because my time on this earth is too short to hold onto things that are not of God. Things that are not bringing me joy or peace or helping me grow closer to God are not worth my time. Your time is so precious so why spend it looking back? You cover more ground if you’re looking straight ahead. My elementary track coach told me not to look behind me or beside me because it would slow me down, but to keep my eyes forward and to go. Looking back does not help me reach God’s promises any faster.

In Genesis 19, God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah but spares Lot and his family. The angels told them to “run for your lives and don’t look back” (v.17) After the Lord had demolished the two cities, Lot’s wife looked back and became a pillar of salt (v. 26) Focusing on the past will not accomplish anything.

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:18-19

“Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead.” Philippians 3:13

“Let your eyes look forward: fix your gaze straight ahead.” Proverbs 5:25

My word for 2020 was abdicate. Abdicate means to step down from power. God put this on my heart heavily this year because I am a control freak y'all. Everything I wrote about today is something that I’ve been walking through myself. You are not alone. I encourage you to embrace the unknown. I encourage you to lean into God, especially when things don’t make sense. Trust His timing because He has a perfect plan for your life.

Let go and let God.