‘Give your burdens to the Lord.’ Psalm 55:22 NLT

Are you burdened about someone you love? Have your efforts to help them failed? Let go, and let God deal with them! Letting go doesn’t mean you stop caring; it just means you can’t do for them what they need to do for themselves. Letting go isn’t about cutting them off; it’s about realising you’re not responsible for the problem, you can’t cure it, and you can’t control it. It’s about not being the rescuer or the saviour so others never realise the consequences of their own actions. It’s admitting that the outcome is not in your hands. It’s not about blaming or trying to change the other person; but having the wisdom to recognise you can only change yourself.

It’s ‘caring about’, instead of ‘caretaking’. It’s being supportive without trying to fix the other person, and instead of judging, allowing them to choose their own path. Letting go means instead of wading into the middle and trying to control every possible outcome, you allow others to experience their own outcomes. Instead of hovering and being overprotective, it’s about permitting them to face reality. It’s about accepting instead of denying. And rather than nagging, scolding, and arguing, it’s learning to work on your own shortcomings.

Letting go means instead of trying to adjust everything to your own desires, you take each day as it comes and treasure each moment. It means instead of criticising and regulating, you learn to focus on the purpose to which God has called you. It means not looking back with regret on the past, and focusing instead on growing and living for the future. Letting go is about fearing less and loving more. The word for today is—let go, and let God!

SoulFood: 2 Cor 5:14–21, Phil 3:8–14, Ps 77:11–20, Pro 9:10–12

The Word for Today is authored by Bob and Debby Gass and published under licence from UCB International Copyright ©