Hi, and welcome to the Five Word Prayers Daily, a five day a week daily devotional where we share the word, prayers, and our heart.

I'm Lisa Whittle, and I welcome you to just five minutes with me, which I trust and pray will be five minutes well spent.

Well, we're having sort of a month emphasis on the hardest things God asked us to do, but not focusing on the heart of them necessarily, but the way it's possible to tackle these hard things by the help of God,

based on my first book by the same name. And today all this week, we're going to cover what is

my favorite chapter in the book written by my mother, who I co-authored the book with, remember?

The chapter on holding on and letting go. Yes, God asks us to do both in this life, and that seems to contradict,

but it's really living in the rub of both things. What do we hold on to and what do we let go of,

and how can God help? All of that and more in just a minute. My mom talks in the book, The Seven Hardest Things God Asked a woman to do about her first water skiing experience, which if any of us have been water skiing, we can relate to how there's a holding on component to it, right?

Where we need to hold on to the handle of the water ski rope and hold on tight so we can be pulled up by the force of the

boat and get on top of the water to properly ski. But at the same time, all water skiers know that

when you fall in the learning process, especially, and by the way, you're going to fall when

you're doing this and when you're learning, you have to let go of the rope or you will

literally swallow the lake as you're dragged in you have to let go of the rope or you will literally swallow the lake

as you're dragged in the water by the boat. The key to this holding on and letting go in this

process is in knowing when to do which. And I think that's the same in our Christian lives.

We have to know when to hold on and hold on tight. And there are times for this for sure

and when to let go. Holding on to what we know and believe and what we trust about God and what we

remember about how he's been faithful in the past. And then we have to also know when to let go,

letting go of what's behind us, letting go of our past. This is also biblical.

Philippians 3, 13 and through 14, probably the most familiar verses about this, forgetting what

lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal for the prize

of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

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