The Journey of YesSample

LETTING GO

The decision to follow God’s leading usually re­quires us to agree to something we can’t see. That is the hard part. We are basically required to recklessly let everything else go, and that can feel nearly impossible.

The best thing about this is that we realize we need someone to assist us in letting go, living “by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). That is the surface need, but the truth is that in everything there is a need for God. We even need God to follow God.

Jesus told His disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:24-25).

This scripture invites us to a heart posture of obedience. An often-hard truth to accept is that a surrendered life is really a life where we constantly die to our own desires.

We must die.

I don’t mean physical death but the type of death that hap­pens through submission and surrender. It’s a posture that says, “I want God more than anything.” The passage above can seem like a countercultural response to life. If we want life, we must lose it. We gain by giving up.

Jesus is our example. He gave up His life so that we could gain ours eternally. He modeled this method so that we can understand even while we are here on earth. If we lay down our life, we will pick up a life we never knew existed.

We all have desires and plans. The journey of yes presents us with the opportunity to surrender those ambitions and expecta­tions to Jesus and trust that the life He has for us is better. Even when we have no idea what His plans are.

God is asking, “Can I be enough for you?” Can your knowl­edge of who God is be enough for you to surrender and say yes to His leading?