Let Go, Let God

It goes without saying that this phrase is not in the Bible, but we'll look at the first half of the statement before criticizing the meaning of the second. We should most certainly "let go", not in the sense of "letting God" do anything, but rather in the sense of consciously relying on His power and providence.

Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor yet for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they? -- Matthew 6:25,26

For who has known the mind of the Lord? or who has been his counsellor? Or who has first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? -- Romans 11:34, 35

If we believe not, [yet] he abides faithful: he cannot deny himself. -- 2 Timothy 2:13

Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls [to him] in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator. -- 1 Peter 4:19

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: -- 1 Peter 5:6

"Letting go" in every day life is resting on God's power knowing that "all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [his] purpose." (Romans 8:28) "Letting go" for salvation is believing that Christ died for your sins.

But the notion that we should "let go and let God" implies that we are somehow a hinderance to the infinite Creator of the Universe. This defies logic and undermines the very meaning of the word almighty. We may attempt to be a hinderance, but we are no match for Jehovah even at our wisest:

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He takes the wise in their own craftiness. -- 1 Corinthians 3:19

To the contrary, Paul wrote that he took pleasure in his own infirmities:

Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. -- 2 Corinthians 12:10

The word infirmities is the Greek word atheneia (G769) meaning "feebleness of mind or body".

Now consider a few examples, where God Almighty is clearly "almighty".

Consider Jonah. He literally fled from God's purpose, but the "great fish" of God's providence swallowed up Jonah (1:17) and brought him to the very place he did not wish to go, and this not only for the purpose of preaching to Nineveh, but for the "sign of the prophet Jonah" in Matthew 12:39. Jonah tried to subvert the will of God.

Consider Pharaoh.

For the scripture says unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised you up, that I might show My power in you, and that My name might be declared throughout all the earth. -- Romans 9:17

Pharaoh, as the representative of The Enemy, refused the command of "let my People go", yet it was God that hardened his heart Exodus 9:12,35; 10:1,20,27; etc.). Though he was King of mighty Egypt, he was as "rivers of water" in the hand of God.

The king's heart [is] in the hand of the LORD, [as] the rivers of water: he turns it whithersoever He will. -- Proverbs 21:1

Consider Paul's conversion. At one moment he was "consenting" unto Stephen's death (Acts 8:1), the next he was faced with The Light on the road to Damascus:

And he said, Who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you persecutest: [it is] hard for you to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what will you have me to do? And the Lord [said] unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told you what you must do. -- Acts 9:5,6

His response was immediate: "what will you have me to do". What does Paul later say of this experience?

But when it pleased God, Who separated me from my mother's womb, and called [me] by His grace, -- Galatians 1:15

The simple fact is that we are "without strength" and powerless against the Almighty God.

For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. -- Romans 5:6

God "works all things after the counsel of his own will" (Ephesians 1:11) and we are as stumble before His wind. Some will contend and resist these words, but the answer is:

Nay but, O man, who are you that reply against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed [it], Why have you made me thus? -- Romans 9:20