Let Go and Let God

Introduction

In many churches around the globe, there is a healthy skepticism of the prosperity Gospel and other teachings that proclaim that you are guaranteed blessings, victory, and rewards on this side of eternity. This is a good thing! It’s good to be skeptical of things that people say are in the Bible but the Biblical support for such ideas is severely lacking. Did you know, though, that the prosperity Gospel isn’t exactly a new thing? Whenever people think of the prosperity Gospel, they typically think of Joel Osteen, Kenneth Copeland, Joyce Meyer, Paula White, Creflo Dollar, Benni Hinn, and others. While these people do teach a false, prosperity Gospel, they are not the first to have done this. In fact, the prosperity Gospel movement started over 100 years ago at the turn of the 20th century. People began to teach that God’s will for believers was to make them healthy and wealthy based on the fact that Christ bore our sins on the cross. One such early prosperity proponent was named EW Kenyon and he taught his Baptist congregation that prayer was not merely asking God, but demanding God to heal because that’s what they deserved.

Yikes! That is the roots of this movement in our world today. Millions have bought this false Gospel and many millions more are taught it every week whether they know it or not. While there are lots of churches that call it a sham, as it is, there are others who are confused and don’t know what is what. Likewise, there are other roots that have branched off of this early movement and promise different, but still untrue, things.

How many of you have ever heard of Keswick Theology? It’s not as well-known as the Prosperity Gospel, but it promises similar things. It promises that you will achieve victory, happiness, peace, and blessings once you are saved and surrender to Jesus. Now, do we experience peace whenever we become a Christian? Absolutely! Do we experience blessings from God that we wouldn’t experience if we weren’t Christians? Absolutely! But do we gain these types of things immediately? Do we immediately experience victory and success in our life? No, it’s a process called sanctification! It takes time. In Keswick Theology the promise is that you can achieve whatever you set your mind to because you have the Holy Spirit and if you just have enough faith, you can do anything!

What’s the answer to your problem in life? Just have more faith. If you’re hurting, just have more faith. If you’re in need financially, just have more faith. If you need something, what do you need to do? You need to, “Let Go, and Let God.” Have you ever heard this phrase? Now, I’ll be honest, I’ve said this to people before. I’ve heard it said numerous times. But it wasn’t until I looked into the meaning behind it that I really understood what this phrase entails. To quote Jared Wilson, “The doctrinal snail eats its own tail, and it leaves believers confused, hurt, and spiritually decimated.” Why is this the case? This is what we will discuss this evening as we look into the false promise of this statement and how we aren’t simply supposed to let go and do nothing, instead we are to trust completely in God and get to work in growing deeper in our walk. We have a responsibility to play and we leave the results up to God because we don’t “let Him” do His job - He does His job either way!

Let’s read this evening out of 1 Peter 5

1 Peter 5:5–11 CSB

5 In the same way, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. All of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. 6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you at the proper time, 7 casting all your cares on him, because he cares about you. 8 Be sober-minded, be alert. Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour. 9 Resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same kind of sufferings are being experienced by your fellow believers throughout the world. 10 The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, establish, strengthen, and support you after you have suffered a little while. 11 To him be dominion forever. Amen.

The Empty Promise of Letting Go and Letting God

At the surface, Let Go and Let God can sound promising. After all with most of these statements, they’ve had a kernel of truth and with some statements they simply sound better than others. This is one statement that sounds really good - you’ve probably heard this or seen it on Facebook. It makes sense to an extent: Let Go - what does that look like? Well it’s an encouragement to surrender ourselves to God and to follow His plans rather than our own. If we really like the statement then we could instead read it and say that it means that we should repent of our sin and believe in God’s plan. Repent and Believe! We can all get behind that message. But why don’t we say repent and believe? Instead we, or some Christians, say “Let Go and Let God.” Think about the situations that we use this statement as well - it’s not whenever things are going well. Normally it’s whenever tragedy strikes. It’s whenever someone is going through a health crisis, the loss of a loved one, a change of scenery or employment, or an uncertain situation. These are the times that this phrase is used. Think about this conversation goes

The Gospel According to Satan: Eight Lies about God that Sound Like the Truth Lie #6: You Need to Let Go and Let God

“So what do I do to let go?” the recipient of this advice may ask.

“Well,” replies the advice-giver, “you let go.”

“Yes, but what does that look like?”

“It means stop trying to control things.”

“But I’m already not controlling things.”

“No, you’re trying to control it by not letting go.”

“So I’m not supposed to do anything?”

“No, the thing you do is let go.”

Do you see how this can be a vicious cycle? In Keswick theology - as is the case with name it/claim it advocates - there is a divide in Christianity. There are those who are blessed by God (Spiritual Christians) and there are those who are not (Carnal Christians) and the reason they are not is because they are stuck in the doldrums of trying to let go and let God. If you aren’t experiencing God’s blessings in your life, it’s because you’re not letting go and trusting in God enough and you need to let go more.

What is the promise of this lie? If you just let go, God will take care of the problem and bless you. If you’re suffering, let go, stop trying to figure it out, stop working, let God work and it’ll be over in a split second because, after all, God wants to bless you and make your life easier.

Doesn’t this sound eerily similar to the prosperity Gospel movement? The Holy Spirit isn’t interested in making you more like Jesus as He is about making you happy, strong, wealthy, and successful. How does He do this in these movements? By getting rid of weakness, illness, sickness, and suffering.

I’ve heard this happen numerous times. Suppose that you or a loved one is in the hospital with a severe sickness or a chronic illness. I’ve heard people professing to be followers of Jesus visit people in the hospital and they say, “This wouldn’t happen to you if you just have more faith.” To people on their death bed, the message from the supposed Christian or pastor isn’t the hope that we have in Jesus to know that we are going to a better place. It’s not the blessing of knowing that this illness is temporary. It’s not the reality of our salvation - instead the message is, this wouldn’t happen to you if you had more faith in Jesus. What a depressing promise! Anytime you’re sick, ill, going through a hard time, the answer is that you need to have more faith and God’s promise is to remove whatever negative thing is going on.

Maybe you’ve never heard this statement or you’ve never thought about it to this extent, but friends, please understand that there are millions of people who believe along these lines:

God wants to bless me

Whenever I’m not blessed, the problem is my faith

The solution is I need more faith

Because God wants to bless me

Does God want to bless His people? Absolutely! How does God bless His people? Is it always through monetary donations? Health breakthroughs? Job promotions? Sometimes! Often, though, it’s through personal realization. He blesses us with Godly perspective or character. He blesses us with Godly friends and family members who encourage us. He blesses us with a random message from someone that gives us strength in a difficult moment. God can bless you without healing you. This movement attributes blessing with healing.

In 1 Peter 5, we see Peter exhort his audience and give a specific charge to elders. His charge includes to be humble, cast cares on Christ, to be alert, to remain firm in the faith, to trust in the Lord! Again, the idea of trusting in the Lord is in this statement. Let Go and Let God - this statement implies that we have to trust in the Lord - this is completely true. We are commanded to cast our cares on Christ. We are commanded to trust in Him. Proverbs reminds us of this

Proverbs 3:5–6 CSB

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight.

This is a good thing! But what is the danger in the statement? Sometimes this statement can be taken as a “get out of trouble free-card” of sorts. If we just let go, like real Christians do, we don’t struggle anymore. Almost to say this: If you are a Christian and you are struggling with something, you’re a second-class Christian and you need to work harder at letting go if you’re ever going to be a capital C Christian. This can be a dividing lie in the church. At this point, some Christians who struggle deeply might be ready to simply give up entirely! Just Let Go of it all. 1 Peter 5 cautions against this and reminds us to be alert. We have a responsibility here, friends! We are called to grow to be more like Christ and this often happens during difficult moments. The difficulty isn’t a bad thing! The struggle isn’t the end of the story. We’ll look at this in a minute, but we don’t need to let go so much as we need just need to grow.

The other promise that this statement notes is that we need to “Let God.” In our culture this is an understandable belief. God isn’t the sovereign king, instead God is a genie in a lamp and we need to tell Him how to do things. He isn’t in charge, we have to let Him out of the lamp and tell Him how to do His job. That’s the view of God in our culture, and sadly there are many Christians with the same false belief. God isn’t a butler to be ordered around. He isn’t a genie to be let out. For a non-Christian to have this view about God, it makes sense. For a Christian to think that we “let God” do His job is crazy. The God of the Bible has a plan. He is in control. He saves sinners. He commands us to repent and pursue righteousness. The Bible shares with us that God not only knows, but He declares what will happen.

Isaiah 46:10 CSB

10 I declare the end from the beginning, and from long ago what is not yet done, saying: my plan will take place, and I will do all my will.

If God declares the end from the beginning and if His plan will take place, what exactly do we “let God” do? Here lies a healthy distinction as noted by Dustin Benge, “God doesn’t need any of us, but He wants us.” Joel Osteen and others love the language of “Let God.” Satan loves the language of “Let God” because it indicates that God cannot do something because it places us in a superior position of authority. As one author puts it, “Satan seeks to dethrone the true Sovereign and enthrone the subjects.” The good news of the Gospel is that God is in control and that He has a plan. We don’t “Let God” do His job - He just does His job. This is what we see throughout the Bible and this truth helps us in our highest of highs and lowest of lows. God is God. I am not.

Don’t Let Go - Grow Deeper

The statement, “Let Go and Let God” has some truth to it and there is an interpretation of it that not only sounds good, but it Biblically accurate. Psalm 46:10 shares with us

Psalm 46:10 NASB95

10 “Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

That sounds a lot like trusting in the Lord and realizing that we are not the one in control. The charitable reading of this statement sounds a lot like this. To someone struggling, though, sharing with them that they need to let go and just have more faith isn’t always the best answer. There are faithful Christians who know that they aren’t in control. They know that God is in control. They know what the Bible teaches. They don’t need to be told to let go more and we certainly don’t need to be told to “let God” do His job… He will certainly do that without our input! How can we avoid some of the dangers associated with this statement? With a more accurate one. With a statement that is not soaked in Keswickian theology, similar to that of the prosperity Gospel movement. What if we said this, “Let’s Grow and Trust God.”

To some people, letting go and letting God is short for stop trying, stop working and stop accepting responsibility. After all, I need to let go in order for God to do His job. How about we look at a Biblical corrective to “Let Go” and that would be “Let’s Grow.” How does this make more sense? Rather than letting go of our situation, problem, anxiety, struggle, let’s grow in our walk with the Lord and understand how He might be using this problem to further His kingdom and deepen our faith in Him! We know that God doesn’t always take away our pain and struggle, but we also know that He never sends something our way without a purpose. We know that He works all things together for our good and for His glory! We know that He is with us. We know that He desires us to be more like Jesus and to grow in our walk. As we seek to grow, in difficult moments we know that we don’t let God do anything. God will act in His timing and in His way. Therefore, we simply wait and trust. This is what Psalm 46:10 commands. Know that I am God. Believe in Him. Trust in Him. Wait for Him. As we do this, we grow. We don’t stay stagnant. We don’t let go and do nothing. No, we trust and we grow to be more like Jesus.

1 Peter 5 shares with us that there is work to be done today! We are to remain firm in the faith even while we suffer. This encourages us in our time of suffering to not lose heart. To not stop trying. To not stop trusting. Instead, we remain obedient! We cast our cares onto Him and we know that He, as 1 Peter 5:10 says, will restore us. When will that happen? It could happen on this side of glory, but as Peter says, because we have been called and are adopted into His family, we know that we will be ultimately restored in glory.

Conclusion

Several years ago, a professor at SWBTS came to Ridgecrest Baptist Church in Springfield to lead a Disciple Now weekend for students in the Springfield area. This man is a faithful teacher and trainer of ministers and I learned so much from him during this weekend and in the teachings I’ve heard of his since. One thing that resonated with me then and continues to today is that he noted that many people treat Jesus like He’s just something in our pocket. We get Him out whenever it helps us out. We bring Him up whenever it is appropriate, but the rest of the time we just keep Him in our pocket until the next difficult moment. Is that how we should be as Christians? Is that what Christ desires in our relationship with Him? No! We humble ourselves before Him and we realize that it is a miracle that He would die for a sinner like us. It is a miracle that He would restore us and work in us. It is a miracle that He would save us and have a unique plan for us! His plan for our lives is not for Him to become our mascot, genie in a lamp, or Jesus in a pocket… Rather, His plan for our lives is to change us just like a potter changes and shapes his clay. In order for Him to do that, we have to be willing to be molded. We have to be flexible. We have to let go of our past. Throughout the Bible, the word for that is to repent. We let go of our sin - we repent of it and we turn to Him.

The danger with this statement is that some of the people who use this do not believe in repentance or sin. I’ve hard Joel Osteen use this statement, but I’ve never once heard Osteen say that every human is a sinner and needs to repent. Let Go and Let God has become a therapeutic slogan to drive in crowds and make people feel warm and fuzzy inside. If you just have more faith, God will do this. God needs you to just say these words and He’ll bless you more than you can imagine. Give me a bucket to throw up in. There’s some truth here, but it’s a statement formed in heretical theology, it is a statement that gives a false promise, and it is a statement that is ambiguous and up for interpretation as we all think of it a little differently.

Therefore, Let’s Grow and Trust God. Let’s understand that God has a plan and trust in His timing. As we trust, let’s grow to be better disciples and let’s try as hard as we can to be as much like Jesus as we can.