The Lord has been teaching me a lot lately about the things I hold on to, the things I let go of… Okay so mostly, he has been speaking to me about my hands.
“My hands?” You’re asking.
Yes. My hands.
I am learning that as followers of Jesus, we must walk our days out on this earth with open hands. So often, we like to latch on to things, people, dreams, for dear life. Sometimes we hold those we love with such a tight grasp. We white knuckle our dreams. Sometimes we even try to possess our pain. We make a fist around our shameful, dirty, past and dare someone to try to take it away from us. We squeeze tight all the labels we have picked up for ourselves over the years.
And then The Lord taps us on the shoulder and says “let it go.” He tells us to let it all go. But God if I’m not what I do, or what I wear, or what I have, or where I live, then who am I? I can’t let it go. That’s my identity. That’s who I am. If not that, then what?
You are mine, He says.
It doesn’t matter what you do, who you are or where you live. Your income doesn’t matter. Your education doesn’t matter. What matters is whose you are.
“And you are mine.” The voice of The Lord resounds.
As long as we have our fingers clenched around what we think we want, The Lord is not able to give us what He knows we need.
So we open our hands and the grains of sin fall away. God shakes out all the garbage. Then He gives us a gift. Maybe it’s a friend, a relationship, a new job, a ministry opportunity.
All is well.
But what happens when God takes away the good thing? What happens when God plants a dream in your palm and then He takes that dream away? Or He gives you the greatest friend you’ve ever had and then He tells you to wave goodbye for a year?
Is God still good? Does he still love us?
But that’s the thing about open hands that I am learning. As long as our hands are open God can give us all we need and a lot more than we could ever want. But, He also has permission to take away.
It’s easy to think that we are being punished when something good is taken away from us. But that is not true. God is a loving, merciful, compassionate God.
He is sovereign. He knows our days. His plans are higher than ours and the best part is, they’re always right.
Living life with open hands is a beautiful thing. It requires a lot of trust. Thankfully we serve a God who is faithful. He never, ever fails.
He might take away, but it is always to give us something better. He never leaves us empty handed.
The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. May the name of the Lord be blessed! (Job 1:21 NET)
