What can you lose?

Anything You Hold Too Tightly You Will Lose.

Charles Stanley Life Principle Bible page 1048

In seventeenth century France, a humble church leader named Fenelon wrote a letter of encouragement to believers who sought spiritual perspective during some discouraging trials. He said,

"Do not wory about the future.
It makes no sense to worry if God loves you and has taken care of you.
However, when God blesses you, remember to keep your eyes on Him and not the blessing.
Enjoy your blessings day by day,
just as the Israelites enjoyed their manna;
but do not try to store the blessing for the future….
Sometimes in this life of faith God will remove His blessings from you.
But remember that He knows how and when to replace them,
either through the ministry of others or by Himself.
He can raise up children from the very stones.
Eat then your daily bread without worrying about tomorrow.
There is tme enough tomorrow to think about the things tomorrow will bring.
The same God who feeds you today is the very God who will feed your tomorrow.
God will see to it that manna falls again from Heaven in the midst of the desert,
before His children lack any good thing."

If we lived with faith of this kind, we would stop anxiety and worry and fretting in their tracks. Will we humbly depend on God to provide?

Admit it—in a tough situation, your first emotional “reflex” is to take control. We all want control. We want to live with the assurance that everything will be okay, and the things that aren’t right can be fixed with concentrated effort. Secretly, we often think, “If I plan carefully and labor enough, I can dig myself out of any ditch.” Or we say, “I can’t give up this thing; it’s my only hope.”
The problem comes when the ground shakes harder than you expected, or the shovel you’re using to dig yourself out breaks.

God lets things like this happen for an importqnt reason—He wants you to recognize that He’s in control.

Whatever you hold too tightly, you will lose; so why not willingly let go and receive a blessing for it?

A humorous bumper sticker reads, “If God is your Co-Pilot, switch seats.” The Lord does not want merely to be the resource you call when you’re in trouble. God wants to be your all sufficient Lord and Master, Savior and Friend.

He knows you intimately; He formed your very cells and fibers (Psalm 139:13-16); He has a good plan for every day of your life (Ephesians 2:10) and He knows how to get you there.

When you face circumstances that rapidly deplete your spiritual, emotional and physical reserves, you want to cling to something strong. The urge is called fear. The question should not be how to get rid of or deny the fear, but what kind of fear it is and where it drives you—to the arms of God or to your own resources?

A woman trappped in a burning building stood on a ledge, several stories from the ground. Even when the fireman climbed a ladder to get her, she would not release her grip from the ledge; she remained frozen in fear. Finally, after the fireman talked to her firmly but gently, the woman understood he was there to help.
Only when she let go and released herself into his care was she saved from the flames.

Are you hanging on to another support system beside the Lord?

HE longs for you to release yourself into His control and eternal support. You do not have to worry about the consequences; He take care of those, too, in the way that He knows is best, and sustains your spirit in the process (Phillipians 4:6,7).

When you feel ready to yield wholly to the Lord, Psalm 56 provides a wonderful model prayer:

“Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You. In God (I will priase His Word), in God I have put my trust: I will not fear. What can flesh do to me?”

Maybe to this point in your relationship to the Lord you have not experienced a trial so extreme that it caused you to assess the true foundation of your trust. God has blessed you with a time of quiet strengthening.

But understand that He loves you too much to allow you any notions of self-suffciency. He will test you in time, but alwys with the purpose of demostrating His never–ending LOVE.