“The Lord reigns;
Let the earth rejoice;
Let the multitude of isles be glad!…
Clouds and darkness surround Him;
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.
A fire goes before Him,
And burns up His enemies round about.
His lightnings light the world;
The earth sees and trembles.
The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the Lord,
At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.
The heavens declare His righteousness,
And all the peoples see His glory….” Psalm 97: 1-6
“Let go of the reins,” the Spirit of God told me one morning as I sought Him. I wanted any and all limits around an aspect of my ministry work for Him to be removed. As though I had nothing to do with those limits. Or did I? The Lord had made clear what I – yes, I – needed to do. To LET GO. Of what?
THE REINS. Only when I began to write this piece, despite my usually relatively good spelling, I had written this. LET GO OF THE REIGNS. Yes, REIGNS. A perfect “mistake”. Perfectly revealing. I needed to surrender utterly to the Lord in this particular area of my life. To HIS REIGN.
I thought I had surrendered already – long ago, in fact. I don’t believe the Lord was telling me I hadn’t already surrendered. I believe He had placed on my heart that morning that I needed to surrender AT A DEEPER LEVEL. Surrender MORE. To a GREATER DEGREE. Not to just loosen the reins and give them more slack. But to LET GO OF THE REINS. Of the REIGN. Of any REIGN there was left in me in this part of my ministry work. Of perching in any way prettily and proudly on my little woman-made throne. And yield to THE LORD REIGNING on HIS GLORIOUS FOREVER THRONE.
In truth, I hadn’t been consciously trying to REIGN with all this. Nor had I consciously been trying to hold onto the REINS. But when I looked in retrospect I saw I needed to do more LETTING GO. Of trusting the Lord to lead me. Of not being afraid of what would happen if I entrusted ALL of this area of my life to Him.
For me, more than anything this would mean that He would not only give me wisdom and directions in how to proceed, but that He would give me the strength to press on and the ability to withstand any and all ways in which people might respond to me and the work to which the Lord had called me.
As He had shown me many times before, and as I had by His grace let go degree by degree but never fully, I needed to LET GO of the FEAR OF MAN – of what people would say, do, and think in response to my COMPLETELY FOLLOWING CHRIST in this part of my ministry work. I needed to do what God makes so clear in His Word. FEAR GOD – NOT fear man.
God wanted me to entirely relinquish the FEAR OF MAN, to LET GO entirely of holding back anything He wanted me to do because I was afraid of how people would respond.
You may not be able to relate to the details of what I needed to LET GO when God told me to LET GO OF THE REINS and LET HIM REIGN because HE IS LORD, but perhaps you can relate to this.
Is there a deeper LETTING GO you need to do? Have you started to LET GO OF THE REINS in some area of your life, or maybe your life as a whole, but neglected to ENTIRELY LET GO? Are you truly living like JESUS REIGNS, or are you sitting on a little throne trying to be in charge in some way? Are you calling Jesus LORD but not living day by day like HE TRULY REIGNS in your HEART and in your LIFE? Is it time to LET GO OF THE REINS?
Is the Lord God almighty speaking to your heart right now? He was to me that day. I knew what I needed to do. LET GO OF THE REINS.
And you?