Have you ever felt like the tighter you hold on to something, the more it breaks you down? It can be a job that no longer fulfills you, a relationship that drains your heart, or even a burden that was never yours to carry in the first place. Yet, you keep hanging on because letting go feels too risky. You tell yourself it’s safer to stay, even though staying is what’s slowly crushing you. Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). When we insist on holding on, we rob ourselves of the rest He is offering.
Fear often keeps us bound. Fear of not having enough money, fear of what people will say, fear of stepping into the unknown. Sometimes we even disguise fear as responsibility, convincing ourselves that we’ve worked too hard to let go now, or that people will see us as weak if we walk away. But the reality is that holding on when God is asking us to release is not strength, it’s disobedience, and it will only lead to more chaos and exhaustion. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7).
Trusting God with the things we love or depend on is not easy, but it is necessary. He reminds us in His Word that He will never leave us nor forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6). If fear is the reason you’re clinging to something, then fear is what needs to be surrendered. The longer we stay tied to what God wants us to release, the longer we delay His peace, His restoration, and His better plan for us. You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you (Isaiah 26:3).
The hardest part is shifting our perspective. Instead of asking, “What will I lose if I let go?” we have to learn to ask, “What will I gain if I trust God?” The Bible shows us time and time again that God restores what we think is lost. Job lost everything, yet the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before (Job 42:10). What looks like an ending in our eyes is often the beginning of something greater in His. “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:19).
Letting go is not always a one-time act. Sometimes it’s waking up every morning and praying, “Lord, I don’t know how this is going to work out, but I trust You with it today.” It’s choosing faith over fear, one step at a time. And the more we surrender, the more we see His faithfulness in ways we never imagined. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight (Proverbs 3:5–6).
We fear being left with nothing, but if you have God, you already have everything. What the world sees as nothing can actually be the foundation for a brand-new chapter in your life. Letting go doesn’t mean you’ve failed, it means you’ve chosen faith. It means you’ve taken your hands off what was never yours to control and placed it into the hands of the One who knows the end from the beginning. “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End” (Revelation 22:13).
So if you feel like you’re breaking under the weight of something you can’t seem to release, remember this: God cannot fill hands that are already clenched. Open your hands. Trust Him enough to let go, and believe that what He places in them next will be far greater than anything you thought you lost. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us (Ephesians 3:20).
Did you ever deal with something similar? How was your breakthrough? Share your experience below. Did you let go, or did God have to step in and force you to?
Holy mess 