Rev. Vicky's Message February 13, 2024

Letting Go and Letting God by Rev. Teresa Burton

How many times have you wrestled with a problem and been unable to see a way out? Maybe you tried various solutions, none of which came together. Maybe you ranted about the unfairness of a situation or worried whether what you were going through would ever get better. At those times, after every option was exhausted, the only thing left to do was to let go and let God.

There’s such comfort in turning over the concerns of our hearts into the care and keeping of God. It makes our struggles more bearable when we trust there is a power outside ourselves who is recognizing our best efforts and forgiving us for our worst, making sure we have what we deserve and helping us get it.

But as we grow spiritually, a new awareness dawns within us. We come to understand God as the one presence and one power in the universe. We know ourselves as individuations of the Divine, uniquely expressing God’s presence and power as only we can. God is principle, the presence that surrounds us but also the power that is within us.

With this understanding, the idea of letting go and letting God takes on a new and deeper dimension. Even as we are fully human, we are also fully divine. We can respond to our worldly circumstances from our humanness or from our divinity. Letting go and letting God really means yielding our human efforts—our will and preferences, our struggle and effort—to the Divine within. When we do this, we avail ourselves of a new world of possibilities and potentials because we have aligned our thinking with divine mind and our feelings with divine love.

And what wonderful outcomes can spring from understanding this distinction. Surrendering our human efforts to the care and keeping of the Divine within relieves anger, worry, and anxiety. Once we’re relaxed, we can better feel the presence of the Divine and the wisdom of inner guidance and intuition. From there, new opportunities present themselves, synchronicities abound, and that which seemed so difficult or even impossible resolves smoothly.

Lent Is the Perfect Time

There is no better time than the Lenten season to let go of what we’re holding onto. This process of release prepares us for the glorious resurrection of Easter. But once the releasing is done, once the Christ in you is resurrected, you will go forth with a precious understanding of the power of letting go and letting God—namely, that this act of spiritual surrender is actually an act of empowerment.

It may have been tempting to think of letting go and letting God as giving up and hoping for the best. Instead, it is a supreme act of faith. It’s living the awareness that there is life beyond this one, and the situations of our lives are always changing. Understanding this truth gives us agency and freedom, allowing us to choose how we will meet life.

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We can learn about this transformative power from the Easter story. When we can release anything from our small irritations to our very lives, we trust life will always go on. We will survive. Jesus’ triumphant overcoming is indeed our own. When Jesus cried out in his final breaths, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46), he was letting go of his earthly life with the certainty that eternal life was his.

That certainty can be yours. Letting go and letting God means giving up the struggle. It means acceptance instead of resistance and peacefulness instead. 

This article first appeared in the Unity booklet 40 Days: Let Go, Let God. 

Namasté,

Rev. Vicky