Letting Go

I sat down earlier to try to post something, but I felt like I was going in 20 different directions with what I was trying to say. So I decided to put it aside & come back later. Well, here I am, and I'm still struggling a little. But, one thing keeps coming to mind. I'm not exactly sure why, but it's what I've got, so here goes...

I remember a poem that hung on the wall of our home when I was growing up:

As children bring their broken toys with tears for us to mend,

I brought my broken dreams to God because he was my friend.

But then instead of leaving him in peace to work alone,

I hung around and tried to help with ways that were my own.

At last I snatched them back and cried, "How could you be so slow?"

"My child," he said, "what could I do? You never did let go."

-Author unknown

Sometimes the things we're praying for the most, we're believing for and hoping for the most, don't seem to be happening like we would like - not the way we think they should, not as quickly as we think they should. But, often, the real hindrance to the situation is US. If we are not willing to let go of something, to allow God to 'fix' it, to bless us, in the timing and manner that he sees fit, then he cannot help us. Until we are willing to completely hand something over, and to say, "This is not in my hands, but in yours," God cannot truly take hold of it and begin to work.

One of the coolest things about God is that he has given us free will, and he operates in a way that does not infringe on that will. He does not want us to serve him because we are forced to, but because we choose to. He does not want us to trust him and to love him because he's all powerful and he can make us do it. He wants it to come from us. And unless we willingly surrender an area of our lives to him, he will not take it from us.