I love language. I love the idea behind the formation of words, and how we understand the meaning of them. I love gaining insight by the definition of words; that in itself can you give you an entirely new outlook on life. Today I have been contemplating the word relinquishment. I was renewed as I read more into the word relinquishment, and I wanted to share that renewal with you.
Relinquishment – to give up or abandon something, to let go, to surrender.
I personally always thought of relinquishment as a constant process. A process of dying to self, of constantly abandoning my sin to live in freedom with Christ. However as I continued to read the definition of relinquishment I found an entirely new perspective. This is one definition of the verbs abandon and surrender (synonyms of relinquishment) from the American Heritage Dictionary.
Abandon and surrender both imply no expectation of recovering what is given up.
Upon reading this definition I realized why relinquishment is a process, and why it can be such a struggle. By giving up, by abandoning, by surrendering that which you are relinquishing you know that you will never receive it back, and that it will never be yours again.
Isn’t it interesting that even things that are holding us back, or causing a foothold of sin in our lives can still be difficult to surrender.
One of the best examples of this struggle is from the Lord of the Rings. Frodo was on a harrowing journey in order to destroy the ring, however, at the moment he was ready to relinquish the ring, to destroy it, he clenched it back into his hand saying “the ring is mine”. He didn’t want to let go of the ring because he knew it would be destroyed, he knew he would never get it back.
Our sin does the same to us, it is holding a spot in our hearts, it is creating a devotion that will cause us grief at the thought of letting it go. What the enemy plans for destruction, God plans for restoration. God can restore that place in our hearts, that place that thinks it needs that sin, that place in our hearts that thinks it can’t be normal without that sin. We must come to a place where we are ready to relinquish it, where we are ready to destroy it forever. When we relinquish it to God restoration begins.
Here is the clip of the Lord of the Rings. When you watch it think of how it is related to the strongholds we have in our own lives, and see the parallel Sam is to Jesus in asking us “destroy it”…”what are you waiting for…just let it go”. Blessing friends, and I pray we all learn to relinquish the strongholds in our lives.
