Day 098: Letting Go

"For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night.  But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.  For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him."  1 Thessalonians 5:9-10

Here is a message that we don't respond to all that well.

I've seen many clergy stress out so much over making sure that every single member of the congregation would be more active and more dedicated to the Gospel.  Glory be to God that we have so many leaders who share this genuine concern.  However, at the same time, it goes to show that letting go is a very difficult thing for us.

Sometimes, we deceive ourselves, saying, "If we are created in the image of God, and God has the control, then we must have total control over everything."

The message above is one that is very telling for us, though, because Paul is telling us that it's okay to let go of those who won't change.  He says that there will be people doing their own thing, falling behind the rest and destroying themselves.  He also says, though, to continue doing what you do and disregard them.  Sure, we are called to bring the Gospel to every end of the earth, but we aren't responsible for every single person.  If people will decide to disobey God and turn away from God, how much more will those same people feel inclined to turn away from our own admonitions?  We don't have the life giving power that God has.

I know from personal experience with many of my friends and acquaintances that we will all feel like we've fallen short in our work because of those who do not want to take our advice.  However, we cannot let those people hinder us as well.  There's only so much we can do before we have to admit that we are becoming tempted to stall and lag behind where we could truly be.  Instead, we should be working to better ourselves, realizing our greater dreams, and following Jesus.

We need to let Jesus take care of the things that only Jesus can take care of, and that will require patience on our part.  When we realize that some of the material possessions that we are called to let go of are some of our friends, acquaintances, and students, we will be able to follow Jesus even further down the way.  We need to pray that we can continue in our walk and that Jesus will help those whom we cannot.