Let Go: Why Your Grip Is the Only Thing
Standing Between You and God’s Best
What if the greatest obstacle to what God has prepared for you is not your past, your weakness, or your failure — but your unwillingness to surrender today?
Every man has something he is unwilling to let go of — and that thing, more than any failure or weakness, is what stands between him and the life God has prepared for him.
The rich young ruler is every man. He was moral, religious, and earnest enough to run to Jesus. But when Christ put His finger on the one thing he would not surrender, “he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” (Matthew 19:22). He was not kept out by his sin. He was kept out by his grip.
That is the thesis of this entire conversation: Surrender is not the end of your story. It is the beginning.
We were made for a purpose. God wired eternity into the human heart (Ecclesiastes 3:11), and every man feels it — that restless sense that there is something more, something you were built for. But when that hunger is not submitted to Christ, it becomes dangerous. We chase titles, money, self-improvement, and spiritual shortcuts. Paul warned us this was coming: “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.” (2 Timothy 4:3). The voices change with every generation. The emptiness does not.
Jesus did not come for the qualified. He came for the surrendered.
Look at Peter — the man who cursed and denied Christ three times on the worst night of his life. Jesus did not retire him. He reinstated him. Three denials met with three commissions: “Feed my sheep.” (John 21:17). Your failure is never the final word. Your refusal to return is. The question Jesus asked Peter, He is asking you right now — “Do you love me?”
C.S. Lewis understood this deeply: “The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become.” Surrender does not diminish your manhood. It defines it.
This is what Paul charged Timothy with — and what God is charging you with today: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15). An approved worker is not a perfect man. He is an obedient one. He shows up. He submits. He carries the Word into every room he enters — his marriage, his workplace, his home, his community.
The Great Commission was not handed to professionals (Matthew 28:18–20). It was handed to ordinary men who said yes. If God is calling you to lead, to disciple, to be counted — then step forward. Not because you are ready. Because He is.
Look in the mirror. The man staring back is being called to something greater than comfort, greater than success, and greater than self. Christ does not need your credentials. He needs your surrender.
There is a place for you, man of God. Come. Be counted among the Remnant.
Application:
Name your grip. The rich young ruler’s obstacle was wealth. Yours may be reputation, control, past failure, or fear of what full surrender will cost you. This week, sit quietly before God and ask Him directly: “What am I holding onto?” Write it down. Bring it to the cross.