My dog loves to play fetch. She will go get whatever you throw for her—balls, sticks, ropes, just about anything! She loves to run and retrieve these things and bring them back to me, but then she does this very human thing—something we often try to do with God—she plays tug-of-war with whatever it is she has brought to me, not wanting to fully relinquish possession of her hard-earned item.

It is easy for us to mess up and ask God for help or to bring an area of our life before Him in the midst of a trial, but then we often play this game of who-has-control, a kind of interpersonal “tug-of-war” with God. We want God to step in at our request and take something hard and ugly and make it beautiful and shiny, but we still want control of it; we want to use it for our own plans or in our own ways.

Everything we bring to God, every part of our life, we are to give fully to Him and we are not to pull it back.

God asks us to lay our lives before Him. Give it to God and leave it alone: lay down your burdens, your shame, and your sin, and leave it there with Him. Give up the tiring and futile game of tug-of-war with God.

Psalm 32 says in verse 8, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.” Trust the Lord and let Him instruct your heart and mind on the issues of life, for He never fails—and He never lets go.

Prayer for the week:

Heavenly Father, thank you for loving me so much that you want to help me be better. My trust is such a fickle thing, and while my mind understands trusting You, my heart is a little slower to catch on. Thank you for being patient and persistent and for not giving up on me. Amen.

Mark Eigsti is senior pastor of Freedom Church of the Nazarene in Lebanon, Missouri, USA.

Please note: All facts, figures, and titles were accurate to the best of our knowledge at the time of original publication but may have since changed.

Written for devotions with Holiness Today.