5 Scriptures to Help You Let Go

“The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.” —Psalm 24:1

I drove to my favorite nature center to walk with Jesus, but when I got to the gatehouse, I discovered I’d misread the hours, and they were closing in 15 minutes. The gentle elderly man there explained that he had to clear the parking lot in 15 minutes and that no more cars could enter. My plan to walk and pray and listen for Jesus was falling apart, and the man could see my disappointment.

So I asked him if he would mind if I just drove in, just to the parking lot for five minutes, and be right back out.

He kindly agreed.

As my wheels crunched on the gravel, I told God that I understood rationally that I didn’t need this particular trail to hear Him speak. I didn’t even need to be in the woods at all. He can speak to us any time, anywhere, can’t He? Doesn’t He fill heaven and earth? (Jeremiah 23:24b)

Still, something sacred happens here in these woods. I anticipate that when I come here, it will truly be a walk with God. I feel Him close.

Then I pulled into the almost-empty parking lot, told God of my disappointment, and asked Him to help me sort through a confusing situation.

In His kindness, God whispered, “Give me all the whole everything.” Surrender it all. Lay it down. Let it go. Not just this or that, not just the parts easiest to give Him, but all of it.

All in all.

I came to that parking lot because of one thing that legitimately hurt. But God asked me to give Him even the parts I think I have under control, and the parts where I want to influence what happens, and the parts I’m not ready to let go.

All of it.

In her book, A Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving: 30 Days of Rejoicing in God’s Goodness, Wendy Speake shares a story of an invitation from God for us to “Praise me for being God, then watch me be God.” (Introduction, page xiv) As I practice this, I’m learning that offering Him my praise loosens my grip. Offering God my thanksgiving releases my expectation for a certain outcome. Perhaps this is the heart behind Paul’s encouragement for us to “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). In praising Him, we remember who He is.

This is not to minimize that life can hurt. Circumstances disappoint us. Our bodies fail us.

People wound us. The things we walk through threaten to crush us. Yet, in the middle of these hard things, we can still trust God. It’s hard to believe, but we can still know peace. That peace begins with surrendering everything. What a relief, actually, when we do.

When we offer our praise, our arms are stretched wide, our hands open.

When I need the reminder to “praise God for being God and then to watch God be God,”* I meditate on these five scriptures, a gentle sequence of instructions that helps us lay down what feels so hard to let go:

1 | “Shake yourself from the dust and arise…” (Isaiah 52:2)

When we find ourselves digging in and clinging to something, this verse is a litmus test. Is what we’re holding actually holding us? Is it time to lay it down so God can take us higher? Ask Jesus this question. Is it time to shake yourself from the dust? Because there is no life in the dirt. It’s only in God that we find life (Isaiah 55:3). Let’s arise and offer ourselves to be transformed.

2 | “The LORD our God said to us in Horeb, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Turn and take your journey… See, I have set the land before you. Go in and take possession of the land…’” (Dt 1:6-8)

Sometimes we find ourselves in places God has not placed us. Or we might want to get into places where God isn’t taking us. Let’s ask Jesus where He wants us to be. Jesus tells us to come, to follow Him, to take His yoke. Let’s turn from what’s keeping us from taking possession of what God actually has for us and take our journey with Him.

“Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!” (Malachi 3:10)

The Lord of Heaven’s Armies tells us to give Him ALL that we’re carrying—all the whole everything—and He will bless us with His plans for us. Here, God even says to put Him to the test! Ask Jesus to show you what you need to bring Him. When we lay down what we’re clinging to, what waits will be more than our open hands can hold.

4 | “For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:19)

When our hands are open, our hearts will be, too. That’s when we can expect Him to take us to a new place, a new season, a new understanding. He creates pathways we don’t see and forms rivers where they appear dry. Ask Jesus to take what you’re holding and then to do something new. What He is able to do when we open our hands and hearts is beyond what we can ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20).

5 | “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are stayed on you, because they trust in you.” (Isaiah 26:3)

Opening our hands allows us to hold onto Him more tightly. The more we learn and know of God and who He is, the more we will trust Him. True peace comes in trusting God’s plans over ours—and that comes only when we understand that the thing we’re holding is not more important or more precious or more perfect than what He plans.

You know that day at the nature center, when the man at the gatehouse ushered me in for just enough minutes to hear that whisper? I was clinging hard to something I had zero control over. What I wanted simply wasn’t going to happen. As I heard that whisper, I understood peace waited only if I could let it all go. This wasn’t giving up or giving in—it was about trusting that more and better would wait. I needed to “watch God be God.”*

*Wendy Speake, A Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving: 30 Days of Rejoicing in God’s Goodness, Introduction, page xiv.