Robertson County Connection
SPRINGFIELD WEATHER

Weekly Devotional: Let Go




Mark Carroll

Mark Carroll

I recently read an article from a blog on the internet and it talked about The South American monkey trap.  The trap is very simple to us. The hunter takes a jar or a gourd with an opening slightly larger than a monkey’s hand. He ties a rope around the neck of it using a knot, called a monkey’s knot which is a cradle of the rope around the jar, and secures the other end to a stake or a tree.  The hunter places some nuts or fruit or rice in the jar.

The monkey reaches his hand into the jar, grabs the food, making a fist with his paw. Now, the monkey’s dilemma: the monkey cannot get his hand out of the jar unless he drops the food. The neck of the jar is simply not wide enough. Of course, the monkey could drop the food and easily get his hand out, but it won’t. Despite having at his command the means to escape, it does not. It keeps his hand tightly grasping the food until a hunter throws a net over it, capturing it.

Sounds pretty simple doesn’t it.  I can see us walking down a village trail in South America yelling at the top of our lungs at the monkeys, “Just let go and you will be free!”  But how many of us hold on to things that we know we need to let go of in the same way.

For some it is food.   We eat emotionally and think that the food we eat will make us forget the problem. For some it is drugs and alcohol.  I struggled with alcohol for years thinking that the problem would disappear. For some it may be cigarettes, pornography, bad relationships, drama, or simply your attitude.  Whatever the thing is that you need to let go of, unless we let go, just like the monkey, we too can be captured by the issue.  Each of us have a God sized hole in our hearts and nothing but a relationship with God will fill that hole, NOTHING!

Last year I buried two men that I walked through drug addiction with.  One overdosed and one hung himself.  Both of them held onto the thing that eventually killed them. Drugs tried to fill that God sized hole and it could never fill the void. I have known some that did the same with alcohol, some with pornography. Unfortunately, as a pastor, I never know of someone’s struggle until they get caught. Then they realize they have an issue. When facing jail time or charges, they suddenly realize they have an issue. They have held onto the nut like the monkey and they are holding on to it so tightly that now there is an issue. We say that we have an opioid epidemic in our society. I believe we have a Jesus problem that we are constantly trying to fill that God sized hole with opioid drugs. 

When I look in scripture at people that God used, the apostle Paul comes to mind. Here is a guy that went around killing Christians. We would want nothing to do with him. He would be the mass murderer, of today. He kept trying to snuff out the gospel so he wouldn’t have to deal with it. Then God showed up and asked Paul why he would not let go of what was going to kill him. Acts 9 tells of the conversion of Paul. On his way to Damascus he was blinded and the Lord asked him a question, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” I think this is the time that God is asking him, why won’t you let go?  Paul let go and God changed his life in a drastic way!!

I don’t know what you need to let go of, but God does! Examine your life and realize that Satan wants nothing more than to destroy your life. He is the one telling you not to let go.

The devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 1 Peter 5:8

So, look at all areas of your life:

Your entertainment

Your church

Your home and family

Your work

Your friends

David had to look into his own life and asked God to show him what he need to let go of.

“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns. See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the everlasting way.” Psalm 139:23-24 CSB

When I was a kid, I enjoyed going to Center Hill Lake with my brothers and mom and dad and we would camp and ski. I was the last to learn to ski. One of the things I had to learn was when I fell, you have to let go of the rope. I remember trying to learn and figuring this out shortly after swallowing most of the lake. Let God speak into your life and show you the things in your life that you need to let go of!!

Mark Carroll is the Associate Pastor for Temple Baptist Church, 117 Marlin Rd. in White House, www.templetoday.com, (615) 672-5339.

Leave a Reply