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Letting Go
What it means to truly “Let Go and Let God!”
By Gina Turner

What do you feel when you hear the words ‘letting go’?

Do you think of letting go of an opportunity because of a responsibility? Does a certain person come to mind? Do you prefer to hang on because it feels better?

In ancient Egypt, King Pharaoh ordered all the Hebrew baby boys—which included baby Moses--to be drowned in the Nile River.  Moses’ mother, Jochebed, in an effort to save her son from death, hid him in a basket and released him down the river. (Moses’ sister, Miriam, secretly followed the basket.)

Ironically, Pharoah’s daughter found Moses and adored him—so Miriam stepped out of hiding and offered to find a Hebrew woman to nurse him. The daughter said “yes” so Miriam took Moses to his mother, Jochebed, who was able to nurture her son and watch him grow.

(Moses’ story can be found in chapter one of the book of Exodus in The Bible.)

Holding on to him would have meant death, sending him off gave real life. Jochebed must have felt angry and powerless until she let go. She may have felt anxiety, or been distraught and saddened. But God had a perfect plan.

As Sharon Hersh shares in her Bible study Mothering without Guilt, “The past, present, and future all urge us to be at war with each other, with God, and with ourselves. We can find ample evidence to support the following sentiments: be resentful, be anxious about the future, be dissatisfied, or be in control. Certainly, Jochebed could have easily been ruled by any and all of these sentiments. But instead she chose to let go.”

Sharon asks, “What do you have to let go of in order to face the future with courage and creativity? In the midst of confusing current events, what do you hold on to? Do you hold on to God? Or do you hold on to self?”

Romans 8:7-8 in The Message states, “Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God.”

Sharon urges, “Ask God to work in you so that you are absorbed with Him rather than with trying to control events. Your creativity is released when you let go of hurts and fears, as you are rooted in the unshakable faith that God can be trusted.”

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