Let Go

by Sheila Walsh

A State of mind that sees God in everything is evidence of growth in grace and a thankful heart
- Charles G. Finney


The ground at the foot of the cross is even. There are no podiums for those who feel most worthy. There are no pits for those who feel they don't belong.


What should have happened did.


God forgives our past and blessed our future.


If you are a woman who feels forgotten, I pray that Hagar's story will help you see God never forgets you. Hagar fled to the desert, in a sense removing herself from the only help or hope that seemed available to a slave girl. Life moved on for Abraham and Sarah. No search party was sent out to find the young woman. She was left by this world to die - but she was not forgotten by heaven. The God who sees never took His eyes off Hagar.


I cannot change what happened, although everything inside me cries out for justice. I don't believe that true justice exists anymore on this earth, so I am placing this unspeakable situation in your hands. I don't have to make offenders suffer, and I don't have to make them feel better about themselves. I relinquish them to you, and today, right now in Jesus' name, I choose life.


Forgiveness means being comfortable with ourselves, the good and the bad. We don't have to be perfect.


A person preoccupied with herself is a person not preoccupied with God.


One of the hardest elements of our walk with God is to keep worshipping Him even when it hurts.


God is my Provider, I will not take the easy way out, I will not seek the spectacular; I will seek God's face.


What satan tempts us with is never what we are really longing for. It may appear to meet a need at the moment, but it will just take us deeper and deeper into the wilderness.


Everytime my will was at odds with the revealed will of God, then taking up my cross everyday simply meant dragging my will back in line with the will of God and placing my life under His protective care again.
- Argentinean Evangelist Luis Palau


Resting in the love of God means letting go of all the broken pieces we cling to and clinging instead to him. An overcomer is not someone who has never fallen, but rather someone who knows where her true strength lies.


Trusting God doesn't mean we will always be protected from the pain of life, just that our Father will be there with us in in.


I believe questioning God for the right reasons is healthy. God wants us to be proactive about our faith. But blindly pulling away from Him serves no purpose but harm.


Some reasons why ladies find it hard to trust :
- "I've been hurt too much in the past. God didn't keep it from happening, so I'm not risking myself again."
- "God still lets us get hurt by people we love."
- "People, even Christians, are just out for themselves. How can God allow that?"
- "When you trust God and open up your heart to someone and tell the truth, they just use it against you."
- "I trusted that God would bring me a mate, and he let me down."
- "I trusted God for a child. I have served him all my life, and he has held this one thing back from me but he lets teenagers get pregnant. How can I trust a God like that?"


If our trust is tied to God acting the way we want him to act, we will be disappointed. If we believe that God answering our prayers the way we want him to is the only way we can trust him, we will live miserable and confused lives. But if we simply trust God, with no strings attached, wonderful things can happen.


God will make my path straight means my path is leading me home no matter how crooked it looks. It doesn't mean without bumps or curves.


"Father today I place my hand in your hand. Wherever you are going, I'm coming with you! I won't always understand, but I trust your heart. I trust your love.


Lord I love you, here is my offering..."


When I place someone or something on the altar in my heart that can only accommodate our Father, there will be a tumbling because God is a jealous God.


If I based my belief in myself on what anyone or my husband said instead of what God told me about myself, I will be made miserable because of it. This is akin to replacing our trust in God with something or someone else.


We were made with the ability to be totally loved by God and to totally love Him.


We must learn to trust again based on God's nature and His love, not based on our fallen nature. We changed that day in the garden but God never has and never will.


The journey towards letting go means letting go of all our expectations for ourselves and those around us and setting our fixed gaze on God our Father.


If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. Whaat isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturbs us...


God's grace is an overwhelming gift. He loves me, right now, as I am. When God looks at me, He sees a daughter/son He adores. Look into the mirror and affirm that.


Jesus might not like what you do, but He absolutely, unconditionally, adores you yourself. In the story of the woman who committed adultery, Jesus is showing that when you despise someone for his or her sins, all you are really doing is shining a light on yourself.


Jesus didn't come to argue with the religious leaders or to heal those who were sick or to paint a more accurate picture of His Father. Jesus came to find and restore every lost human being. The phrase "the lost" can be translated here as "broken beyond repair". Jesus came to save those who believe they are broken beyond repair.


We are all vulnerable broken human beings who at any moment can fall. My hope is in the risen Christ, not in husband. When I look at my own life ...... my hope is in the risen Christ ruling and reigning in me. Is my hope that my sons will never mess up? Absolutely not. My hope is in the grace and mercy of our redemptive God, who watches over his sheep.


We do not need to defeat the devil; Jesus has already done that. We just need to believe it and live in it. You don't have to out-yell satan. You just hae to out-truth him! He is a defeated enemy.


In the strong name of Jesus Christ, I stand against the world, the flesh, and the devil. I resist every force that would seek to distract me from my center in God. I reject the distorted concepts and ideas that would make sin plausible and desirable. I oppose every attempt to keep me from knowing full fellowship with God.

By the power of the Holy Spirit I speak directly to the thoughts, emotions, and desires of my heart and command you to find your satisfaction in the infinite variety of God's love rather than the bland diet of sin. I call upon the good, the true, and the beautiful to rise up within me and the evil to subside. I ask for an increase of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

By the authority of almighty God, I tear down satan's strongholds in my life, in the lives of those I love, and in the society in which I live. I take into myself the weapons of truth, righteousness, peace, salvation, the word of God, and prayer. I command every evil influence to leave; you have no right hear and I allow you no point of entry. I ask for an increase of faith, hope, and love so that, by the power of God, I can be a light set on a hill, causing truth and justice to flourish.

These things I pray for the sake of Him who loved me and gave himself for me. Amen.