Summary: <br> Have you ever given up on something in the past and just wish you would have kept going? Where would you be today if you wouldn’t have given up? Oh dang! Healthier, stronger, further along perhaps?<br> It’s easy to imagine how life could be if we would have stuck with the things we gave up on, but today, I want you to imagine how your future life could be if you would give up some specific things today.<br> Yes, give up.<br> I mean let go of. Move on from. Surrender.<br> For many of us, we’re holding on to something that is no longer serving us. We’re dwelling on something that has held us back. We’re carrying something that is exhausting us. And in order to move forward to the life God has available for us in 2020, we must let it go. Drop it. Move on. Surrender your right to carry it into this next year.<br> Something I’ve learned is just because you have the right, doesn’t make it right. You have the right to say anything you want to say, it’s called the right of speech … but that doesn’t make it right. There’s just some things you shouldn’t say. And for those of us who have ever stuck our foot squarely in our own mouth, we know this is true. Many years ago I was a receptionist at an office. My boss had been telling me for weeks about a real pain in the butt client he had. One day, she called and I answered. I thought (emphasis on the word thought) I put her on hold, and yelled across the office “Jeff, your pain in the butt client is on the phone.” And then I hear on the other line “uhhhh, excuse me?” Oh I had the right to say it, I was fully justified in my personal description of her, but it didn’t make it right.<br> You have the right to still be hurt over what happened in the past, but does that make it right? Really, does it change anything for you to still carry around this hurt? Does it make it better?<br> You have the right to be frustrated and angry, but honey if it’s not helping you it’s hurting you. You may be stuck in indecision today because you still don’t understand WHY what happened happened, so the question becomes, how much longer will you hold on to your incessant need to know as another day passes you by? A day of opportunity is here … will you miss it because you’re stuck in something that’s already happened?<br> Let it go.<br> You likely imagined this year of life would look a certain way. And the majority of us come to the final 3 weeks and look back with a few questions. Hmmmmm, why did it all work out the way it did? If you’re like me, some areas of your life really surpassed your imagination for 2019 … while other areas are honestly quite disappointing. You didn’t imagine this loss. You didn’t imagine this hardship. You didn’t imagine this setback. You didn’t imagine this struggle, no, not this one. And yet you’re walking right through it. Gosh, I can’t believe this is happening to me … not at this point in my life. How can I be here?<br> You can deny it, but what good does that do? Let’s face the truth … some of our reality is a bit hard to swallow. Things happened you didn’t see coming. Other things didn’t happen that you had really counted on.<br> I have a leadership team of 8 people from across the country. 3 out of 8 of us lost a parent this year. 5 out of 8 of us are struggling with a wayward child. Every single one of us love Jesus, and every single one of us prayed these exact situations wouldn’t happen.<br> Where’s God in all of this? Where is he when you’re struggling to understand why and why not? Answer, he is here, with you.<br> God says in Isaiah 41:10 “Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.
