Loose Grip
It’s been a long time since I’ve written, since February 2020, life has changed, the world has changed, how we do “faith” has changed, but God hasn’t changed. As I think about how quickly things changed and how much things changed over the past year I think about how sensitive we must be to changing tides.
As believers we have to learn to adapt to change and, more than that, see change before it happens. To never let ourselves get stuck in something, to never let comfort stunt our growth. One of the greatest flaws we see in the Pharisees is their unwillingness to deal with change. The Pharisees held on so tightly to the image they had of the Messiah that they let their picture keep them from Christ when He came. The truth is, God will get you like that. The moment you get comfortable in what you know He will confound your wisdom.
“But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;”
1 Corinthians 1:27 ESV
I have this picture in my mind of a man standing with firm feet and loose knees. I believe as Christians that has to become our posture. Yes we must stand firm on the word of God, but we must beware of getting so fixated on a word in season we let it become religion and miss when God has moved. Our knees must remain loose, ready to move when the Spirit moves.
We often forget that Gods reveals in part and so when we hear from God on a matter we try to apply it to all moments and all seasons, God’s word for your today may not be His word for your tomorrow, we must always go back.
it is important to hold on to all our possessions with a loose grip lest our possessions become our God. It becomes about not valuing anything so much it holds your focus or becomes your priority.
“Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.”
Matthew 19:21-22 ESV
A rich young man once came to Jesus seeking to find what it’ll take to enter the kingdom of heaven, he had followed all the religious protocols to enter heaven but when Jesus challenged him to let go of all his worldly possessions and follow Him, he was unwilling and unready, he valued his riches too much to let go.
Jesus must be unequivocally the number one in your life. There must be no dispute over His place in your life, Christ must come first, even before the things He gave you.
““If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”
Luke 14:26 ESV
The key to this is an intimate relationship with the Father, so you can speak to Him and know what He requires of you and when what He requires has changed. The reason the rich man was held on so tightly to his possessions was because he approached Christ with an old covenant mindset when Christ was inviting him into a new covenant.
I highlight that this is not just the approach we must take with our worldly possessions but also with what God says to us. We must always check what He is saying for the present moment. I am sure we all know the story of Joseph well. Joseph went through the painful route of slavery to garner favour for the nation `israel when the famine came. Egypt became a safe refuge for the Israelites. At this time Egypt was a blessing to the Israelites.
“When he summoned a famine on the land and broke all supply of bread, he had sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave.”
Psalm 105:16-17 ESV
That, however, was for a season, what was at the time of Joseph, a blessing would become a place of oppression.
“Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land.””
Exodus 1:8-10 NKJV
There came a time where the Israelites needed to get out of Israel and when God sent Moses at first the rejected him, then when they got into the unfamiliar territory of the wilderness they wanted to get back to Egypt. Comfort and too firm a grip can have you lusting for the thing that is killing you.
My prayer as I write this, is that we would, in this constantly changing world, keep are eyes fixed on the God who doesn’t change and who has the wisdom to carry us through every moment and every trial. That we would always look to the Father for guidance and never result to leaning on our own understanding. That we would never hold on too tight to our way of thinking that we miss out o. What is ahead of us all.
Amen.