Give it to God – 6 Powerful Ways to Let Go and Let God Handle It

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When you have to travel the difficult roads of life, do you let go of the wheel, give it to God and let Him navigate the way as well or do you try to maintain control on your own? Giving all our trials and worries in life to God and trusting Him in those difficult times is often easier said than done! In fact, it is downright frightening at times.

Most of us have heard the saying ‘let go and let God’ but not many people tell us HOW! How do you let God be in control when you are going through a mess and every fiber of your being wants to hold onto the wheel? Read on to learn how you can start letting go and letting God take control!

What Does it Mean to Give it to God?

Giving it to God means placing your trust in Him, letting Him have control and take it completely from you. When you give something to another person, you must let go of it and allow them to take control of it. You must do the same with God. Hand it over to Him and stop fighting to keep control of it.

It also means trusting Him and His character enough to know that He answers us.

How to “Let Go and Let God” Handle It For You

Ok I get it! You might be saying “Easier said than done Diane!”

Well, I have a little experience in this area of letting go and letting God (or I should say NOT letting go!)

A couple of years ago, my husband and I went through a really difficult time. We were living somewhere that just wasn’t working out for us. We could just feel the need to move on.

It was a bad move to begin with, but was necessary for him to complete his doctorate.

It just seemed like nothing was working out for us there. Even my daughter, who was in her first year of high school, wasn’t happy and didn’t feel she fit in.

It was time to move on, but that would prove to be easier said than done.

He started applying for jobs all throughout the country. In his career, you don’t just look at one location. You basically have to be willing to go where the opportunity presents itself. Since he had gotten every job he ever interviewed for we thought this would be easy!

We were wrong.

That Wilderness Feeling

He had TONS of interviews! In fact, he had so many interviews I literally had to start a spreadsheet. I wish I was joking!

I had to track all these phone interviews, and face-to-face interviews, where they were and the results of them. He was traveling all over the country on what seemed like a weekly basis and was usually one of two finalists for the position.

And yet one door after another slammed shut. He didn’t get the job.

We were at a loss. We didn’t understand what was going on! All of a sudden this man who always got the job wasn’t getting any! 

Usually, it was because they would end up hiring an internal candidate or not hiring anyone at all! ‘Weird’ was the only way I could describe it. I am not just talking about one or two jobs. I am talking more like twenty!

It was honestly the most baffling time of our lives! It made no sense! One or two jobs, yeah I can see that. But tens of jobs? Something was going on!!

We were in our own personal wilderness with God leading the way, except we were too busy looking at where we THOUGHT we should be heading instead of looking for where God was leading us!

He got the interview and flew to Connecticut and then, that same week, flew to another state for another interview.

While he was at the airport returning home from the interview in the other state, he called me. He said three words that still give me goosebumps.

“We’re going home!”

Give it to God – Heading into the War Room

He got the job back home in Connecticut and we would be returning home in about six weeks. I immediately broke into tears.

As I went about the rest of my day, beginning to make arrangements to move, something hit me.

Two months before all this happened, before we even started looking for jobs, my husband and my daughter had made me a War Room in our house. I would go in each day and spend time in prayer, blog there, etc.

On the wall was a sheet of paper where I wrote out what I was praying for!

I had at that time started praying that God would make a way for us to go back home. I prayed for it every day!

Because we were unhappy with where we were and what was going on there, because we were worried about finding another job, because we were focused on the NOW and that job in Connecticut wouldn’t even be on the radar for another six months, I had forgotten that I had even prayed for it! I had forgotten I had even placed it in God’s hands to begin with.

It is Easier to Trust God When Not in Need

You see, I was all too willing to hand it all over to God and let Him just answer that prayer His way when I first added it to my prayer list, BEFORE the difficulties arose. But it was easy to forget that request when I was in the middle of all the mess. It was easy to start heading in a different direction when things got tough.

I had this plan for how God should have worked things. I always believed I was giving the situation to God but the reality was I was directing Him. We often do that, don’t we?

In this directing, we fail to give it all to Him and surrender to God’s will.

What Does it Mean to Surrender to God?

It is the giving up or yielding to the “power” to Him and abandoning yourself ENTIRELY to Him, letting Him be our burden bearer!

Still unsure? Well, let’s look at what the word “surrender” means.

The Merriam Webster dictionary defines “surrender” as:

Oxford Dictionary defines it as:

It is the giving up or yielding to the “power” of another and to abandon yourself ENTIRELY to an “influence”. It is, as I said, giving up power to God.

The one I’d like to add which just struck me as I studied this word was also from Oxford and says:

This is the type of surrender you’d typically see in war movies or police films where someone gives themself up to either the enemy or to the authorities, whichever the case may be.

And God laid it on my heart above all else that when we seek to do things OUR way and when we take it upon ourselves to instruct God on how He should handle our situation, we actually treat Him like an opponent because we don’t trust Him to handle our problem the way we deem acceptable.

We act as if He is our enemy rather than our Father, our Friend, our Savior! Jesus gave Himself up on a cross for us and yet somehow we doubt He has our best at heart!

So what does it mean to surrender to God? It means giving up! It means waving the white flag and saying “here am I, send me!”

It means letting go of the wheel and giving it to God! It means going straight to our heavenly Father in prayer and in His Word and trusting and having the peace of mind that He is who He says He is!

Jesus PLEASE Take the Wheel!

We often hear this saying (and the song!), but do we truly live it?

It is often as though we are on this road trip with God behind the wheel. We are traveling this road that we THINK we know. And we see a turn to the left and we shout “God! Take this road! I know this road…it is perfect!! It is a shortcut!! It’s a great way to go!!”

But God keeps going!

Then another turn to the right! “God! Take THIS road!!! This road is easy! This road has some great scenery! It’s so nice! I know you’d love for me to see this road!!”

But God keeps going!

“God, turn HERE! This is the last road!! If we don’t turn here we are going to end up somewhere I don’t know!! We may end up somewhere horrible!!!”

But He keeps going!

Then we arrive where God was leading and it is the most beautiful destination! It is better than anything we could have imagined!! And if God had granted our wishes and turned down any of those detours, we wouldn’t be in the wonderful place we are now.

I prayed for so many states, so many jobs, so many opportunities!! We looked into each area he was interviewing in and thought how awesome it would be to live there. And each time God drove on past it.

It wasn’t that any of these other places were bad; they were all good! They just weren’t best!

God, our loving Father, was answering my prayers, the prayers I had even forgotten about by that time because of all the stress and because each location looked better than where we were!! I thought I was able to easily entrust it to God but truth was, I wasn’t trusting God enough to see Him moving.

I was saying “Jesus take the wheel, as long as you go where I tell you!” We want Him to take the wheel but WE want to navigate! We say take over my life Lord as long as He is doing it the way we picture, rather than just giving it to Him and letting the Holy Spirit lead!

Trusting God in Good Times AND Bad

Trust that God is in control and He has a plan!

No matter what you THINK may look good, God has better.What we THINK we want may only scratch the surface of the wonderful things God has in store!! Let Him handle it!

God has brought us home and placed us in a part of the state that we are absolutely in LOVE with.

At the time we couldn’t understand how he had been a finalist for almost every single job he went for and didn’t get a single offer. And I realize now, if God had allowed him to get ANY job offer prior to this one, he would have taken it because we were SO miserable where we were. Then we wouldn’t be where we are now.

Trusting God in difficult times really shouldn’t be something to fear !! He’s got you!! He is in control! So take the map YOU brought on the trip and hand it over to Him and don’t just let Jesus Christ take the wheel, let Him do the navigating as well!

Letting God lead the way is the best option to get to where you want to go! He knows the roads far better than you!!

What are some ways you have struggled to trust God in various situations? How did you overcome the temptation to handle it all yourself?

Questions to think about when trying to give it to God (and share in the comments if you’d like!):

• What ways have you struggled to trust when you are in wilderness times?
• How did you overcome that desire to hold onto the wheel and find rest in Him?
• How did you let go of control and offer your body AND your mind as a living sacrifice and let the Lord handle things?
• How did trusting God help you the next time you faced difficulties?
• Did it help to strengthen your faith for every good work?
  
  

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ESV  –  “Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”