Just Let Go: Learning to Trust Again

I was thinking the other day, I worry like it's my job.  Sad, but true.

To clarify, I have indeed come a very long way.  I am facing a few things now that the 30-year-old Karen would've been rendered paralyzed.  I seem to be getting better about putting things out of my mind and worrying about it when "I absolutely have to".  But the fact of the matter is, I don't absolutely have to worry about anything in God's economy.

What I do still need much work on is letting go.  When a worry comes up, to acknowledge it, pray about it, and then trust God with it and just let go...

I've been in Leviticus for much of the summer now and one thing I am learning is that the Lord has already provided EVERYTHING we need for life and living.  I shared about this in my blog post, Spiritual Instincts:  We are designed for SUCCESS! which you can read here.

As I was pondering writing this blog post, the Lord brought Jeremiah 29:11 to my mind, For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. where I was struck by the word "hope".  This is such an often quoted verse, but I think most people are focusing on "prosper", but for today's consideration, I want to focus on hope.

As Believers, our hope is in Christ Jesus, His salvation and forgiveness of sins, and our eternal security.  But our hope doesn't just end with the heavy hitters!  Every second of every day, we can live in God's hope.  For He is the Lord of the next minute, the next hour, the next day, the next month and the next year.

So why do we hold on so tightly to worry?

My daughter shared some insight with me that worry is actually a form of control. I never really thought about it that way, and I must say, when she said that I sort of bristled.  But deep down, I know she is right.  When we worry, our thoughts are focused on how we want the outcome of the object of our worry to play out.  Not putting our hope in God who has promised that very hope to us.

I recently read that letting go of worry can be a sacrificial offering.

Merriam Webster's dictionary defines sacrifice as an act of offering to a deity something precious

Something precious??  My worry is precious??  Well, going back to the control aspect of worry, indeed our own desires are precious to us.

When we let go of our worries, it is indeed a sacrifice, because we are giving it to God and allowing His will to be done not our own.

Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, 

that He may exalt you in due time,  

casting all your care upon Him, 

for He cares for you.

1 Peter 5:6-7

Last week I was sitting in a waiting room with my daughter and the morning news was on.  They showed the story about a teenage girl who was with other people on a bridge which is apparently a site for summer "fun" where they jump off into the water for a thrill, I suppose, and to cool off.  In the video, you could see that the girl was undecided about whether she was going to "go for it" or not. I don't blame her.  The bridge was quite high in my estimation.  Shockingly, when the girl was looking to the side and not down at the water, one of her "friends" shoved her and she was then free-falling out of control into the water.  Thankfully and miraculously, she did not die and was not too seriously hurt.

As I was preparing for this post, that video came to mind.  Sometimes, life can indeed feel like an out of control free-fall, and if we are distracted with worry and not focused on the Lord, we end up hurting ourselves more...

Yet when we are on life's bridge, as long as we focus on the Lord and not on the worry, we can let go of the worry and freefall straight into the strong, capable arms of our God and Father, our Hope, who will catch us and not let go.  He will then bless us abundantly through the sacrificial offering of our worries and our own will.

Think about those exercises where people do the "trust fall", where you fall back into the arms of the person behind you hoping they will catch you.  Well our hope is sure in our God and Father.  He will catch us EVERY time.  The more we just let go of worries, the more we will trust the Lord with our worries.  It almost seems silly to type that we have to learn to trust God, but, in all honesty, many times our actions would say that we don't trust Him.

If we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.

2 Timothy 2:13

To all my worrying friends out there remember...

God is faithful [He is reliable, trustworthy and ever true to His promise—He can be depended on], and through Him you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

1 Corinthians 1:9 Amplified Version

Your grace abounds in deepest waters

Your sovereign hand

Will be my guide

Where feet may fail and fear surrounds me

You've never failed and You won't start now

Hillsong United

You can read more about overcoming anxiety in my post The Seventh Year:  How to survive anxious moments here.

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