DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TRYING TO HOLD BACK CAN ACTUALLY BE DYING?

In childhood days, we had great times hunting birds, plucking cashews and mangoes and riding bicycles. One of those days, Kayode had caught a bird and Ayodele and I were with him. We needed a place to keep our new captive so we placed it in a case in the corridor of Kayode’s house. We went out to play for a while.

When we came back, we saw Kayode’s brother, Gbenga with the bird. We wanted to get the bird back but he insisted that he caught it. Who catches a bird in a cage for goodness sake? It became an argument.

As we were arguing, one of the veterans in the faith, Baba Mike Oye drove into my parents’ house. He was in town for a special meeting. He saw us arguing and decided to intervene. Gbenga kept insisting that it was his bird and as much we tried to get it from him, he would not release it.

Baba eventually said, “Gbenga, give me the bird first so we can at least resolve the issue”. By the time Gbenga opened his hands, the bird was dead. Everyone was dead silent. The fight was over. Regrets filled the air. While he insisted it was his own, he was squeezing the life out of it.

What is God asking you to release that you are doing all you can to still hold on to? Every time you spend holding tight to it is a moment of squeezing the life out of it. What are the things God can ask for?

• God can ask that you give Him your life. If you will keep holding back your life from the Lord, you will eventually lose it to death. Sin will squeeze your life and then pay you with death. Something dies on the inside any time you sin. Release your life to God.

For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
Matthew 16:25 NKJV

• God can ask you to give material things. If you keep piling things up because you are scared of giving, you will still end up in poverty. Benevolence and liberality is the key to abundance with God.

There is one who scatters, yet increases more, And there is one who withholds more than is right, But it leads to poverty.
Proverbs 11:24 NKJV

• God can ask you to surrender your career. Some will have to give up certificates so they can serve the Lord in missions. Some will reject the call and settle for convenient alternatives but then lose the gain of obedience.

The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ.
Philippians 3:7‭ MSG

• Finally, when God is calling your child, do not become the stumbling block to their obedience. Every child is the heritage of the Lord and every parent is only a steward. If you hold on to that seed with the grip of “It is mine”, you may open your hands later and say “I wish I had handed him or her over to the Lord.

What are you struggling to release?

Is it clear?

temilOluwa Ola, Eruwa