“When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 35 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.” Mark 8:34-35 NKJV……………….
Is there something you need to throw away? Something you’ve been thinking about over and again you know needs to be gone? Something you know you’re holding onto that needs to go into the trash? Into the garbage? To the landfill? Down the toilet? Down the garbage disposal? Something deep down inside no matter how much you’ve been avoiding it, or how much you’ve been pretending you don’t know you’re supposed to throw it away, no matter how desperately you want to hold onto it, or are simply too afraid to get rid of it, that you know it’s time to say goodbye to? To let go? To release? To part ways with? Do you know deep down inside, even deeper than your own human fleshly thoughts, that the Lord is the one who is leading you to throw it away? Then throw it away!
One day the Lord told me to throw away some of my writing. I liked the sound of it. I thought the message was strong. I believed it would help others. I had scribbled it out all out on paper on a Sunday as I stay off the computer on Sundays for the most part to rest on God’s Sabbath day. I had saved it to type and publish on Monday. But the Lord told me to get rid of it. My response in my heart was immediate. Yes. Yes, I would throw it away. But why would I throw it away, and why am I bothering to tell you it was immediate?
I threw it away because I LOVE THE LORD, and I AM HIS, and HE IS LORD, and I LOVE AND SERVE HIM, and TRUE LOVE FOR GOD manifests in OBEDIENCE TO GOD. Why did I tell you it was immediate? Because I’ve never had an easy time of letting go – of anything or anyone. And when it comes to the Lord, I spent years resisting Him to no end when it came to letting go. From the huge stuff, and the enormous relationships, to the little stuff, and the little relationships, and everything and everyone in between.
I resisted the Lord not only because of what and whom I didn’t want to let go, but because of PRIDE. I saw myself as being in charge of my own life, instead of humbly and reverently bowing down before THE LORD, recognizing Him as MY LORD, and obeying Him in my love for and honor of Him. The Lord has brought me to a place where I am so in love with Him, and am so in awe of His power and sovereignty, of His lordship and magnificence, and such understanding that He is LORD OF LORDS, that HE IS GOD, and that HE IS KING OF KINGS, and that HE WILL REIGN FOREVER, that I know when the Lord says, “throw it away,” there’s only one thing to do. Throw it away. In an act of surrender, yes. And of obedience, yes. Most importantly, as an act of LOVE for THE LORD!
Whatever it is He’s telling you to throw away, or whatever it is or whomever it is He is telling you to let go, if you are SURE it is the Lord leading you to do so, humbly and reverently submit yourself to Him and with a heart filled with LOVE for HIM, OBEY HIM. Throw it away!