Letting Go

"Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old.  Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it?  I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert." (Isaiah 43:18-19)

Letting go is releasing your grip on what was so that you can embrace what is.  It is the act of releasing, in order to obtain freedom and the ability to move beyond what you were holding on to.  It is often not an easy thing to do.  Letting go requires strength and courage.  It requires trust.  It requires the hope that what you are letting go of will make way for something that you can truly hold on to.  

You may be standing in the desert of your past surveying the barren, desolate terrain: Large boulders of resentment, prickly cactuses of shame, the hot sand of judgement, the dry air of regret.  You may be standing in the desert of unforgiveness looking out over the expanse of miles and miles of endless scorching sand separating you from that person you won't forgive.  You may be standing in the wilderness of loss unable to see beyond the thick forest and underbrush of sorrow that your grief has caused.  Or perhaps you find yourself in the wilderness of confusion where the only things you can see are the towering trees of indecision and the brambles of fear.  

Wherever we may find ourselves, we are told the secret of letting go in the above verses in Isaiah 43.  We are told not to remember nor consider the former things and the things of old.  The secret is in the beholding and in the knowing.  When we 'behold' someone or something we gaze upon it intently.  We focus our attention on it fixedly.  In the process of beholding we come to know more of what or whom we have fixed our attention on.  What was the 'new thing' that God was doing?  A 'thing' that could make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.  A 'thing' that could cause us to let go.  

It is the only thing that can bring lasting change and the ability to truly let go.  It is the only thing that can make a road in the wilderness or a river in the desert.  It is the Cross, it is the redemptive work of Christ Jesus on the Cross.  When we come and we gaze upon the Cross we can do nothing less than be transformed, and in that transformation comes the ability to truly let go.  To let go of all that we were outside of the Cross, to let go of all anyone else may have done to us, to let go of fear, sorrow, pride, selfish desires, sin, unforgiveness, pain, hurt, loss, or whatever may have been holding us back from all that we truly are.  

As we gaze upon the Cross we come to truly know our precious Lord, to truly see what he accomplished for us and in us.  So, what is it you need to let go of?  It was only in beholding the Cross that I truly came to let go.  To let go of me, to truly know that He did away with all I was there at the Cross in Himself so that I could truly live in Him by faith.  To let go of my past, both the hurt it caused me and the hurt it caused others.  To let go of my insecurities, my fears, my loss, my pain, my wants, my desires, and all of my wrong thinking.  

I implore you to let go.  Behold Him, behold the Cross, until that thing you were holding onto fades away in the light of all He is.  Let go and behold the road that opens up in your wilderness; the river that rushes through your dry desert.  We were made to move forward, we were made to live, and it is in the letting go that we are truly free to do so.  





To find out more about my blog or my writing, please visit my website at hawkewriter.com

Anne Marie Hawke 
2018