“My eyes are ever on the LORD, for only he will release my feet from the snare.” Psalm 25:15

I ran down the street, my hands loaded with heavy shopping bags and a briefcase of truth, desperate to escape the thugs chasing me. Suddenly a shadow crossed my path. Looking up I saw a hot air balloon overhead with a rope dangling down within my reach. I glanced back to see the thugs closing in on me. Looking down at my bags, I realized in a flash how worthless these things were, and dropped all but the briefcase. Then, grabbing the rope, I was lifted to safety by the rising balloon, leaving the thugs behind.

This figuratively happens in my life every day. It is the illustration of following three biblical principles: Let Go, Hold On, Rise Above. As I struggle through life, weighed down by all kinds of nonessentials, I give Satan opportunity to catch me. At the same time, God offers a way to rise above Satan’s attacks.

As it says in Colossians 3:1 “Since you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, not on the passing things of earth.” To illustrate how this works, let’s ask three questions.

Let go of what? All that is temporal. This encompasses almost everything in life. To ‘let go’ means, to keep things in an open hand, to give them up to God and let Him decide which things to take and which ones are to remain. It means setting our hearts on things above, not on things on the earth. It means denial of self, giving up my impatience, selfishness, pride, “rights” and materialism, recognizing that holding on to them is carrying detrimental baggage that makes me vulnerable to attack. I’m going to lose them anyway (the definition of temporal), so why cling to them?

Hold on to what? To all that is eternal. This means, thinking Truth and acting on it: when I am impatient, I need to think, “Actually God is in control of the timing here; I can trust Him.” In order to do this, we need to know the Truth, meaning we need to spend time with God and in His Word every day.

Rise above what? The everyday hassles, hurts, frustrations and difficulties as well as the big, painful events. As we relax in Him, trust Him to deal with it, join Him in what He is doing, He will raise us above the everyday fight so we can see things from a greater height, to understand His perspective, and make better decisions.  Truly, “My soul finds rest in God alone” (Ps. 62:1).

Prayer: “Lord, help me to recognize what I must let go of, what I should hold onto, and then help me to do that, so I can rise above with you to live in the atmosphere of truth and praise! Amen.”