This morning I read some encouraging words from a friend’s whatsapp. It’s entitled: “Letting go of the past”; pretty appropriate considering it’s the last day of the year 2015. What catches my attention though is the fact that it’s not about letting go on your own strength. We
may easily acknowledge a whole host of things we need to let go of – relationships, thought patterns, bad habits, an unhealthy lifestyle, etc, etc. But at the end of the day that’s the easy part: coming to terms with what we need to let go of. The hard part is actually doing it…
       When you’re a child of God, the nice part is that you don’t have to do it on your own.
We are almost like spoiled children; run to Daddy and He’ll fix it! But you know what? That’s
actually true. We don’t have to try and try, succeeding today and failing tomorrow. God really is
that near and ready and very willing to help us be as happy as we want to be. I think though
that the problem with letting go is the fear that things won’t work out the way we want them
to work out. We want things done this way or that way but at the end of the day with God it’s
ALWAYS going to be the BEST way!
       Sometimes we just need to start with little steps. Step 1: Be honest with yourself and
God. He’s not going to strike you down if you tell Him how you feel. He already knows anyway
and He is loving enough to respect your feelings, needs, desires and struggles. Step 2: Ask Him
to give you a desire to release into His very capable Hands whatever it is you need to let go of.
So, instead of trying so hard to give it to Him only to find yourself taking it right back out of His
Hands, ask Him to give you a desire to release it and to help you to leave it in His care. Step 3:
Stand on His Word! What does His Word have to say about your situation? It does say that He is
able to keep (take care of) whatever we commit into His care (see 2 Timothy 1:12). It also says
that He is able to complete the work He started in you (Philippians 1:6). He is the One to get the
job done! And step 4: Trust Him! I know it sounds clichéd but at the end of the day, we just
have to remember that He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think
(Ephesians 3:20). It also says that God wants only the best for us:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God
has prepared for those who love Him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9, NKJV)

       The adulteress represents all sinners (see John 8:3-11). We all have secret sins, desires, temptations that may be brought to light. The devil is just looking for an opportunity to expose us, to destroy us. He can only do that if we give him the opportunity to do so. He is the accuser of the brethren; but it is better to be falsely accused than rightly accused. He wants to make God look bad  because this battle is really between him and God; we are just pawns in the battle. When the woman was presented before Jesus, it wasn't about her and what she had done, it was about trying to destroy Jesus. Ironically, these religious men were not really interested in obeying Moses' law as much as they wanted to destroy Jesus. They were just as much sinners as this woman was. Similarly, the devil is just as much a "sinner" as we are. It's kind of like the pot calling the kettle black. Both are pretty much in the same boat. We though have salvation as our way out, the devil has nothing!
       When someone falls, everyone becomes judge, juror and executioner. Somehow that person's sin looks worse than our own but in fact it is not. In God's eyes sin is sin. We are the ones who like to categorize it. God's ideal is that we confess our faults to one another, to help one another. Instead, we expose and talk about and thus condemn one another. Ironically, we condemn our own selves, because while we accuse another we ourselves have sin in our lives. That's why the bible says to cast out the beam from our own eyes before we deal with the spot in our  brother's eye (Matthew 7:5). We can't "see" clearly with sin in our lives . Sin mars our perspective so that we cannot see as we should. In fact, condemning someone else may seem to help us deal with or even come to terms with our own sin. It is, however, NOT the way to deal with our sin. We need to acknowledge and confess our sin to God, forgive ourselves and move on. Then, instead of condemning others, we can help them, we can pray for them, especially leaders whom we hold in high esteem. Rather than condemn them when they do wrong, we need to pray for them because they are human just like us and need our prayer even more so because they are a prime target. Once the enemy strikes them, he can scatter the sheep. We are less condemning of others once we can see our own sin in our lives. Being honest with ourselves and acknowledging our sin keeps us from condemning others.
       Note well though that when Jesus dismissed the woman, He told her to go and sin no more. He didn't condemn her yet it was not an excuse or opportunity for her to continue in her sin. She had to stop! She had the ability to stop.

          Jesus chose His twelve disciples, they did not choose Him. "Have not I chosen you twelve and one of you is a devil?" (John 6:70) Jesus knew who would betray Him yet He chose him anyway, sending him out two by two with the other disciples, giving him power and authority to do certain things in His name. Jesus needed Judas. He needed him to get to the cross. That was His purpose for coming to this earth . . . to bring salvation to us. But He could not do it without an enemy. The key thing here is: He chose Judas because He had a plan, He had a purpose.
          We don't like adversity, in fact we would prefer to run from it. Yet, at the end of the day, we need adversity in our lives. We need enemies because it is our enemies many times who catapult us into God's plan and purpose for our lives; who help us to accomplish God's will for us. Joseph's brothers were his enemies, but thanks to them he fulfilled God's plan for his life. They tried to stop his dream from coming true but ironically instead they helped bring it to pass. Joseph faced obstacles and adversity along the way, each trying to abort his dream, but they could not. Instead they each brought him a step closer to realizing his dream. (Genesis chapters 37 - 41) That's what adversity does - it's plan usually is to destroy us, to hinder God's plan for our lives. But at the end of the day, God uses adversity to catapult us into our destiny.
          Adversity not only brings us into our destiny but it molds and shapes us, even prepares us for what God has in store for us. Adversity is the sandpaper God uses to smooth away our rough edges and sometimes before we can reach where we are going, God needs to "smooth away some rough edges." Adversity can help to "smooth away" anger, unforgiveness, traits that can hinder us in our walk with God. Let's face it, adversity is an integral part of our Christian walk. God says that in everything we should give thanks (1 Thessalonians 5:18). . .  He knows why!
          Joseph's character was being molded while he waited for his dream to come true. Here is where adversity was important, even necessary in his life. It wasn't necessarily anything he had done or was doing wrong. God needed to prepare him for his destiny. So, when the temptation comes to curse adversity, don't! God can use anything and anyone to get us to where we need to go. Some people and things we do have to avoid because they can and will try to abort our dream. But some people and things we cannot avoid because they are what God will use to bring us into our destiny.