Dr. Ron Sumners
February 12, 2006
As we are learning to pray, we discover an interesting progression. In the beginning our will is struggling with God's will. We beg. We pout. We demand. We expect God to perform like a magician or shower us with blessings like Santa Claus. We major in instant solutions and manipulative prayers.
As difficult as this time of struggle is, we must never despise it or try to avoid it. It is an essential part of our growing and deepening in spiritual things. To be sure, it is an inferior stage, but only in the sense that a child is at an inferior stage to that of an adult. The adult can reason better and carry heavier loads because both brain and brawn are more fully developed, but the child is doing exactly what we would expect at that age. So it is in our spiritual life!
In time, we begin to enter into a grace filled releasing of our will and a flowing into the will of the Father. It is the "Prayer of Letting Go" that moves us from the struggling to the releasing.
There was a commercial a few years ago for Nestea Tea Company. It pictures a man standing by a swimming pool in the hot of summer. He is drinking a glass of iced tea and as he does, he falls back into the pool with a loud sigh of satisfaction, "Ahhh!"
Do you have that picture in your mind? Now see the same picture with the man falling into the arms of Jesus with a thirst-quenching "ahhh." I think it is a great image for letting go. Hold on to that mental image of falling into the arms of Jesus.
The end result of the Prayer of Letting Go brings us into soul-satisfying rest. Have you ever fallen into the arms of Jesus to find perfect peace and rest - true satisfaction? This image describes the end result of the Prayer of Letting Go rather than the process, but we need to have the end result clearly before us to give us courage to face the process.
We learn the Prayer of Letting Go in the school of Gethsemane. Use your imagination again and picture a solitary figure etched against gnarled olive trees. Can you see the bloody sweat falling to the ground? The human longing cries out, "Let this cup pass." The final letting go says, "Not my will but yours be done" (Luke 22:39-46). We would do well to think often of this unparalleled expression of letting go.
Here we have the incarnate Son of God praying through His tears and not receiving what he asks. Jesus knew the burden of unanswered prayer. He really did want the cup to pass, and He asked that it would pass. "If you are willing father?" was His questioning and wondering. He asked, "Is there any other way? Can people be redeemed by any other means?" The answer was "No."
Andrew Murray writes, "For our sins, he suffered beneath the burden of that unanswered prayer." Jesus laid down His will. The battle cry for us is, "My will be done!" rather than, "Thy will be done." But, in the school of Gethsemane, we learn to distrust whatever is in our own mind, thought, and will even though it is not directly sinful. Jesus shows us a more excellent way; the way of letting go. Our will is given to the perfect will of God. "Thy will be done" was Jesus' consuming concern. Doing the will of God isn't difficult until it comes at cross-purposes with our will. Then the lines are drawn, the debate begins, and the self-deception takes over. But, in the school of Gethsemane, we learn that our will must yield to higher authority.
We must not get the notion that all of this comes to us effortlessly. That would not even be desirable. Struggle is an essential part of the Prayer of Letting Go! Jesus asked repeatedly for the cup to pass. He could have avoided the cross if he had so chosen. He had a free will and a genuine choice, and He freely chose to submit His will to the will of the Father.
It was no simple choice or quick fix. Jesus' prayer struggle lasted long into the night. Letting go is no easy task!
All of the spiritual giants in scripture struggled with letting go: Abraham as he let go of his son, Isaac; Moses as he let go of his way and yielded to God's way; David as he let go of the son given to him by Bathsheba; Mary as she let go of the control of her own future; and Paul as he let go of his desire to be freed of a debilitating "thorn in the flesh."
Struggle is important because the Prayer of Letting Go is Christian prayer and not fatalism. We do not resign ourselves to fate. Catherine Marshall writes, "Resignation is barren of faith in the love of God ... Resignation lies down quietly in the dust of a universe from which God seems to have fled, and the door of hope swings shut."
We are not locked into a preset, determinist future. Ours is an open, not a closed universe. We are co-laborers with God, as the Apostle Paul puts it - working with God to determine the outcome of events. Therefore, our prayer efforts are a genuine give and take, a true dialogue with God - and a true struggle.
Decisions do not come easily. We pray. We struggle. We weep. We go back and forth, back and forth, weighing option after option. We pray again, struggle again, and weep again. Believe me; we struggle through decisions many times.
The Prayer of Letting Go is a real relinquishment but it is done with real hope. We do not let go with a fatalistic resignation. We are buoyed up by a confident trust in the character of God.
Even when all we see are the tangled threads of the backside of life's tapestry, we know that God is good and is out to do us good. That gives us hope to believe that we are winners, regardless of what we are being called upon to let go. God is inviting us deeper in and higher up. There is training in righteousness, transforming power, new joys, and deeper intimacy.
The very thing that we let go of may be returned to us. Why would God take us through this roller-coaster process? Why, for example, did Jesus say, "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains a single grain, but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (John 12:24)? Why does God seemingly require letting go before bringing something into being?
Part of the answer lies in the fact that we hold on so tightly to the good that we know that we cannot receive the greater good that we do not know that God desires to give us. God has to help us let go of our tiny vision in order to release the greater good that He has planned for us.
But this is only a partial answer. The fuller answer lies in the purposes of God in transforming the human personality. Letting go brings us to a priceless treasure: the crucifixion of the will.
Paul knew what a great gift this is. "I have been crucified with Christ," he said with joy. There is letting go. There is crucifixion. There is death to self-love. "But this is a releasing with hope, it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:19-20).
John Woolman, the Quaker tailor who did so much to remove slavery from America, once had a dramatic vision in which he heard a soft, melodious voice, "more pure and harmonious than any I had ever heard before; I believe it was the voice of an angel." The words were, "John Woolman is dead." He was very puzzled and troubled over these words and sought to understand what they meant. Finally, he felt the power of God and the words formed in his mouth, "I am crucified with Christ!” Then the mystery was understood. He had died to self and now was alive in Jesus Christ. Indeed, John Woolman was dead and now Christ lived through him!
"The death of my own will" is strong language. But all of the great men of God found this to be true. Soren Kierkegaard echoes Woolman's experience when he says, "God creates everything out of nothing - and everything which God is to use, He first reduces to nothing."
Do you know what a great freedom this death of the will is? It means freedom from what A.W. Tozer called "the fine threads of self-life, the hyphenated sins of the human spirit." It means freedom from self-sins: self-sufficiency, self-pity, self-absorption, self-abuse, self-aggrandizement, self-deception, self-exaltation, self-indulgence, self-hatred, and a host of others just like them! It means freedom from the burden of always having to get your own way. It means freedom to care for others, to genuinely put their needs first, to give joyfully and freely.
Little by little we are changed by this daily crucifixion of the will. We are changed, not like a tornado changes things, but like a grain of sand in an oyster changes things. New graces emerge: new ability to cast all our cares on God, new joy at the success of others, new hope in a God who is good, who is for me not against me.
We are talking about the crucifixion of the wll, not the obliteration of the will. Crucifixion always has resurrection tied to it. God does not destroy our will but transforms it so that over a process of time and experience we can freely desire what God wills. In the crucifixion of the will, we are able to let go of our tightfisted hold on life and give control to God.
The will is surrendered moment by moment as you face the ordinary decisions of home, family, and job. I can't give you a prescription for how this will happen in your life. I can, however, give you some practical prayers that you can use.
First, learn the Prayer of Self-Emptying. Pray through Philippians, chapter 2, this describes the self-emptying of Christ, who was in the form of God and voluntarily took the form of a servant and became obedient to the point of death. Ask the Holy Spirit to apply this self-emptying to the specifics of your day. Wait quietly. Listen carefully. Obey immediately.
Second, learn the Prayer of Surrender. Using of the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) go with Jesus into the garden. Stay awake and watch. See His sorrowing soul. Let your heart he saddened too. Struggle with Him in seeking other options, hoping to avoid the cup of death. Now, speak His words as your own, "Not my will by thine be done."
Third, learn the Prayer of Abandonment. You might pray, "Lord, I abandon myself into your hands; do with me as you will. Whatever you do with me, I thank you in advance. Let your will be done in me, and in all your creation - I desire no more than this!"
Fourth, learn the Prayer of Release. Give Him your children, your spouse, your friends. Place them safely in His hands. Next, place into His loving care your future, your hopes, your dreams, finally, hold up to Him your enemies, your anger, your desire for retaliation. Give it all into the hands of the Almighty God and then turn around and walk away - leave it all there.
Fifth, learn the Prayer of Resurrection. You may pray, "Lord, bring back to life what will please you and advance your kingdom. Let it come in whatever form you desire. Let it be in your time and in your way. I know that some things will remain dead. It is better that they do. I will not long for them. I willingly let them go. New things will come to life, and I will be richer because of them. My life will be enriched in ways that I never could have imagined. I pray for the resurrection of my life that only you can bring!"
Our journey into the Prayer of Letting Go has only begun. It is a lifelong process. Letting go takes us into rugged terrain. The climb is steep, the rocks are sharp, and the way is narrow and precarious. From every human viewpoint it seems a foolish journey, but we who know the Lord know better. We know that even if we fall, we fall into the arms of Jesus fully satisfied, fully at rest. "Ahhh!"
0 Lord, how do I let go when I am so unsure of things? I'm unsure of your will, and I'm unsure of myself. ... That really isn't the problem at all. The truth of the matter is that I hate the very idea of letting go. I really want to be in control. No, I need to be in control. I'm afraid to give up control, afraid of what might happen. Heal my fear, Lord.
How good of you to reveal my blind spots even in the midst of my stumbling attempts to pray. Thank you!
But now what do I do? How do I give up control? Jesus, please, teach me your way of letting go.
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