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God is always in complete control of the situations surrounding us, whether we believe it or not. In various verses in the Bible, we are encouraged to take refuge in His power and have faith. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, Hebrews 11:1.
There are times in our lives when we are stubborn knowingly or unknowingly, and instead of leaving our worries, hurts or challenges to God, we take matters into our own hands. We believe that we can change or control our situations when we are not supposed to, it is not in us to do so. These are the moments where we are advised to let go and let God.
What does this mean? How do we let go of this need/want to control situations? How do we fully trust in God?
Let go of perceived control and strength
We need to stop believing in our own strength and abilities (that we are given by God) and surrender to Him. God always always maintains full control of our situations, even the very painful and difficult ones. We may feel like the chaos and noise problems cause require our immediate solutions, that we need to quieten things down but this is not the case. In Philippians 4, Paul asks the Philippines to not be anxious about anything but to take it all to God and only then will His peace which surpasses all human understanding be our portion. Think of the time you felt most at peace, can you describe it? God’s peace transcends that. How amazing is that?
This will also let God show His power. When we sit quietly, amidst all the madness and chaos within and around us, we allow God to show us His power by either calming the storm or walking us through it. We also allow ourselves to be in God’s presence while still in a difficult time. How beautiful is that?
Let go of doubts.
What are doubts? The belief that God may not work, He may not take you through what you are going through or get rid of it completely. Thoughts that lead you to a place where you may question the strength, might and existence of God. We mentioned faith earlier on. We can not have both faith and doubt. We can not have faith that our loved will get well and still doubt that the Lord will heal him/her.
But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.
James 1:6
What do we do when we have doubts? We pray, share our feelings and thoughts with God and submit to Him.
Surrender to God.
This means leaving everything in our lives, ourselves included and letting God become the focus in our lives. Look at and re-establish your priorities and make God at the top of the list and let Him be in control. Ask Him what to do and tell Him that you have left it all to Him. Even when in problems, we still hold on to hope and believe that God is in control of every aspect of our lives.
Nurture fellowship and worship
The more time we spend with God, the easier it is to trust Him and knowingly let Him control the course of our lives. Look for people you can spend time with and have Bible study, simply worship or attend services with. Pray over it and create a community of people who can support each other and dive into scripture together.
‘Let go and let God’ is not a phrase that is found in the bible or that was written by anyone, but it is an encouragement that sums up different verses and teachings in the Bible to help us to let go of all things and give them to God. To let Him control the course of our lives with no doubts, questions or ownership of solutions.