Holding On and Letting Go

Last night Sherry and I gave away a jigsaw puzzle we had enjoyed to our kids. A few hours later, a friend said she had a jigsaw puzzle she wanted to give us. That’s an example of a great principle in life. We are designed to give and to receive. To hold on and to let go.

Ecclesiastes 3:5:
A time to keep, and a time to cast away.

Both holding on to things and letting go of them are important in our lives. Think of your physical body. We breathe in oxygen and hold on to it as it moves in our bloodstream to invigorate our cells. Then we let go of the carbon dioxide produced in our metabolic processes. We eat food and hold on to the nutrition to strengthen us and give us energy to do what we need to do. Then we get rid of what we don’t need.

The same is true mentally. What we take in that is positive and uplifting we can hold on to. These thoughts improve our lives. And they affect what we say and the impact we have in this world.

Matthew 15:17,18:
Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught?
But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart.

Job learned a valuable lesson. When you are doing the right thing, it is good to hold on to that lifestyle. Then we get stronger in our walk with God.

Job 17:9:
The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.

Paul had done this for years. He wrote to Timothy near the end of his life and encouraged him to hold on to future rewards by faithfully living in the present.

I Timothy 6:12,19:
Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.
Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.

One of the most important things to hold on to is God’s instruction to us. It is life.

Proverbs 4:1:
Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life.

II Timothy 1:1:
Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.

True instruction comes from a knowledge of the salvation and wholeness we have in Christ. God had the Prophet Isaiah remind the people that God would hold on to them and give all nations “light” through His Son, the Messiah.

Isaiah 42:6,7:
I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles;
To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.

In Luke 2, the aged Simeon declared that this prophecy referred to the baby boy he was allowed to see before his death—Jesus. When Jesus had grown to be a man, he told his followers that they should hold on to God’s goodness. They should not trust in money, but in the living God, his Father.

Luke 16:13:
No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon [money].

There are many choices for us to make each day. We should test those things and hold on to what is good.

I Thessalonians 5:21:
Prove [test] all things; hold fast that which is good.

We can hold on to and profess our faith in Christ without wavering. Why? Because God is faithful to keep His promises to us through His Son.

Hebrews 10:23:
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised).

One day Jesus Christ will come back for us. Many of us will physically die and “let go” of our earthly life before that happens. Some may be alive when Christ returns and will “let go” of this life and likewise put on an incorruptible body, like Christ’s glorious body. Both the dead in Christ and those still alive will be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air. Then death is swallowed up in victory. We all will let go of corruption and hold on to eternal life.

I Corinthians 15:53,54:
For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

Let’s let go of the things we don’t need and hold on to what is good and loving and kind. That will bring us great blessings in this life, and ensure a bright future in the life to come.