Letting Go in the New Year
This may not be like your other new year newsletters so far...
Are you someone who chooses a word for the year? I tend to be, but often I forget what the word is halfway through the year (or honestly halfway through February) as God guides me through different seasons of change, emotions, and growth.
I’ve discovered that adapting to God’s direction is often better than forcing the one I had in mind.
In November 2022, I was celebrating a friend of mine turning 30 with some of our friends. Over the weekend, I was asked about the transition from my previous job and how I was enjoying the new one, along with the updates of our new home, etc.
Every time I reiterated the updates and changes, a certain word fluttered to life in my heart and mind.
RELEASE
verb: allow or enable to escape from confinement; set free.
noun: the action or process of releasing or being released.
I wondered if this was my word for 2022 that I likely had forgotten, so I started ravaging through my journal entries from the beginning of the year—dream after dream, spilling my heart out to God, prayer after prayer, and not a single entry about a chosen word for the year.
But you know what I did find over and over again between January and May?
—A prayer for release.
I prayed for release from my job that was weighing me down and stressing me out so much that my body ached and writhed in pain.
I prayed for release from my physical ailments as I couldn’t figure out how to squelch the discomfort my body felt daily.
I prayed for release from the place in my head where anger, frustration, and discontentment lived rent-free—
anger at the wrong I was seeing/hearing/experience weekly in the world, in my job, in my church, in the lives of others, etc.
frustration at God for allowing it to happen or not removing me from the situations.
discontentment that this could be what God was calling me to for a very long time, if not forever.
I didn’t choose a word to lean into for the year, but at the end of 2022, God was subtly, yet boldly reminding me that He didn’t forget the word that kept popping up in my desperate prayers.
As 2023 rears its head, I am happy to report the release God has gifted me in practical ways, but I’m also proud of the moments I chose to release.
I’m not necessarily choosing the word release for 2023, but I like to think it chose me.
God meets us where we are and answers the prayers we forgot we even prayed, and for that, I am walking with my head much higher as we enter a new rotation around the sun.
As much as God released me from things I prayed to be released from, there’s an active response of release I need to meet Him with as I pursue growth in my relationships, career, dreams, and health.
We tend to grab the bull by its horns when the new year arrives, feeling like we must meet every new thought or question with a goal or resolution.
But what if this year, we resolved to simply release instead of grab on?
What if 2023 was the year we stopped gripping so tightly to the things we can’t fully control, and learned to live in the freedom that comes from a life of letting go?
For whoever wants to save his life will lose it;
but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. (Matthew 16:25 NASB)
I can’t say I feel fully released from everything I want(ed) release from, but I know God came through on His promise to be with me every step of the journey. That alone gives me enough strength to say yes to what will free my soul and no to those things that keep me caged in this discontented world.
My prayer for you, for us, for this year, is that we would find the strength to be meek enough to say “yet not as I will, but as You will” in everything the Lord may bring our way.
Because release isn’t about the lack of trouble or pain, but about the peace and joy of knowing God stands in the tension with us, and freedom is found in the midst of letting go.
This year, I am thankful for a God who answers the prayers we forgot we even had and invites us to respond by throwing off the burdens we so often try to carry ourselves.
As a way to pray us into 2023, I encourage you to read the prayer Jesus prayed for his disciples and for us as we journey through faith toward Him and the Father daily.
Jesus prayed these things over us:
Belief. Protection. Unity. Fulness of Joy. Sanctification. Truth. Glory. Love. Knowledge. Presence.
May your 2023 be filled with these and more as you release what you need to release in order to embrace God’s freeing grace.
—Stephanie LaPreal Yttrup
This was excellent!!!