verb  1. allow or enable to escape from confinement; set free: 2. allow (something) to move, act, or flow freely:

Release is my word for 2017.  A verb that will be my theme for all new growth that happens.

There are many reasons I picked this word.  Too many for a simple blog post.

But summing it up:

God has shown me so many areas in my life where I have been death-gripping to keep control.

Or at least the perception of control.

What I didn’t realize was that those same white knuckles were also strangling the life out of me.  From soul to spirit to mind to body.

And even more awful was when I realized that my desire for control over circumstances and situations was paralyzing the Holy Spirit’s work in and through my life.

What stood in the way of RELEASE?

The same three culprits:  Fear.  Pride.  Selfishness.

If I released that desire for control it would mean that I would have to face the unknown with open hands and an open heart to whatever God deemed necessary and good.

What if it doesn’t turn out how I want?  What if it brings me to my knees?  What if it requires more of me than I want to give?

After asking what my word for this year would be, my friend Amy had this beautiful bracelet made for me.  I love it. I wear it 24/7 as a reminder.

Look at that definition again:

verb  1. allow or enable to escape from confinement; set free: 2. allow (something) to move, act, or flow freely:

How beautiful is that?  Doesn’t that sound appealing? Don’t those descriptions drip with visions of life and freedom?

Words like “escape” and “set free” tell me what I’m going to experience personally as I release control to God’s sovereignty and goodness.  When I let go, everything that I’ve been squelching will be set free to live and breathe.  My joy.  Peace.  Hope.  Boundless love.

I see the second definition as even more compelling, as what happens to the Holy Spirit in my life when I release that desire for control.  I allow Him to “move, act and flow freely” through my life.  I want that desperately.  To let Him work in and through me without the boundaries of my grip of fear, pride and selfishness.

Every morning, I can feel that tinge of tendency to want control of my day, my time, my plans, my hopes and dreams. It starts in the pit of my stomach and makes its way up to my naturally worrying brain.

Today my hard thing is once again opening my fingers and letting go all over again.

To open not just my hands, but myself, to something greater.  Freer.  To true abundant life, released to the plans and dreams that God has.  To trust in the One who knows the past, the present, the future and whose ways are always good and right.  To let me soul fall freely into the hands of Jesus who is growing and shaping me through it all.

Why would I settle for what can fit in my small fist instead of the vastness of all that comes from the the hands that created the world and everything in it?

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:9