A man named Jack was walking along a steep cliff one day when he accidentally got too close to the edge and fell. On the way down he grabbed a branch, which temporarily stopped his fall. He looked down and to his horror saw that the canyon fell straight down for more than a thousand feet. He couldn't hang onto the branch forever, and there was no way for him to climb up the steep wall of the cliff. Certain death was looming. So Jack began yelling for help, hoping that someone passing by would hear him and lower a rope or something to get him out of his predicament. HELP! HELP! IS ANYONE UP THERE? "HELP!"
He yelled for a long time, but no one heard him. Resigned to his situation... he was about to give up when he heard a voice.....
"Jack, Jack. Can you hear me?"
"Yes, yes! I can hear you. I'm down here!"
"I can see you, Jack. Are you all right?"
"Yes, but who are you, and where are you?
"I am the Lord, Jack. I'm everywhere."
"The Lord? You mean, GOD?"
"That's Me."
"God, please help me! I promise if you'll get me down from here, I'll stop sinning. I'll be a really good person. I'll serve You for the rest of my life."
"Easy on the promises, Jack. Let's work together to get you out of the situation you’re in there..... then we can talk."
"Now, here's what I want you to do, Jack. Listen very carefully.”
"I'll do anything, Lord... just tell me what to do."
"Okay, are you ready?” “YES I am!” “Let go of the branch, Jack."
"What?" “Could you repeat what you said, I don’t think I heard you clearly.”
"I said... let go of the branch... TRUST Me Jack... just LET go."
There was a long silence. Finally Jack began yelling, "HELP! HELP! IS ANYONE ELSE UP THERE?"
Have you ever felt like Jack? Maybe you feel like Jack right now.
We say we want to know the will of God. We say we want to live our lives in harmony with His plan for our lives. Bring it on Lord! But when we find out what it is, what’s really involved, how we need to radically change our views, attitudes and actions, we often can't handle it. So we work to craft our own version of the Christian Walk... replete with small compromises, adaptations, alterations, etc., etc., all the while thinking we’re in lock-step with Him. While we would never out loud admit what we do... we “alter the walk” so we don’t feel uncomfortable, pressured to change and fully commit our lives unconditionally to His will and purpose.
The fear and apprehension of commitment to God, comes when we fully understand the details of living our lives as “Christians.” Living His Way sounds too confining. You may have to give up what you want, letting go of something you think is important to you. You feel lost without the “world’s” stamp of success and definition, without life’s accolades, without your pride and achievement.
So... we decide to look elsewhere for the answers to life’s challenges, to fill the emptiness, that void within our soul that only God can fill. When GOD says, "Let go of the things that stand between you and ME, and trust ME with your life, " it sounds pretty scary.
The Apostle Paul’ understood this apprehension and fear all to well. No doubt he himself experienced the fear of fully surrendering to God’s will for his life. He wrote in the letter to the Romans about what it means to TRUST in the Lord, no matter what happens to you. Romans 8:28-39; a passage that might well be a rhetorical masterpiece, Paul describes the feelings we all have at one time or another .....
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus,
who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
“...in all things God works for the good of those who love him...? That verse causes many Christians to assume that God is going to make things go well for them when they become Christians. That’s not what God means at all.
Good things will not always happen to us, nor does it mean that God is always there to fend off the wolves that would do us harm. Paul mentions a number of hardships, struggles and opponents of those who align themselves with Christ. Paul’s point is not that Christians will be protected from these struggles and hardships, but rather these things cannot sever the Christian from God’s love, comfort and presence.
Paul’s statement that “in all things God works for the good” is not a pious slogan. It’s not a Christian version of “Don’t worry, be happy.” Paul does not say that everything is good, or that all the experiences of a Christian are good experiences, or that everything in life is going to turn out all right. Rather, what he says is that God works in all things, that in all the experiences a Christian encounters God is present working in the Christian and through the circumstances, whatever they are. He works in a redemptive way, in a transformative way... for the disciplining, growing and maturing of the Christian.
The ultimate good is nothing less than transformation to the likeness of Jesus Christ. This is God’s purpose for those who “love Him.” This is the ultimate good—that humans be shaped according to the mind and heart of Jesus, our Redeemer. Jesus’ life represented a model of the kind of human being God wants each one of us to be. He was the quintessential human being who showed us what we can be... with God’s help of course... the Holy Spirit working in us... transforming our lives.
When God says “let go” of our treasured things, He really is “for us.” God wants us to flourish and thrive. And the supreme revelation of this is in Jesus, who was “the son of man,” the representative human being, the gateway, our link to all of God’s promises and blessings. And for Paul and the early Christians Jesus’ death, God’s giving up of Jesus to endure death, is evidence of how much God loves and cares for us.
The Apostle Paul and the early Christians were convinced that absolutely nothing, no circumstance or trial or hardship, no enemy or opponent or power, nothing in existence could separate them from God’s love in Jesus Christ.
Today, the question is much the same as it was then... “Do you believe that?” If you can and do, then you never have to fear God. You can “let go” because nothing in your life, even your very life, is more important than your TRUST and relationship in Him.
Its human nature to only think of a Higher Power when we can’t handle our problems. When help does arrive.. we dictate our terms. We have a problem with letting go of our desire to be in control. But unless we learn to let go of our old ways of thinking, we will never progress to a way of living life where God is in control in our lives.
