5 Things I Did Everyday to 'Let Go and Let God' (And You Can Too)

When I feel like I'm running on empty, I know it's time to refuel by faith. But I wasn't always this confident in Christ.

I used to think that getting a better grip on the moving parts of my life – through planning, brain dumps, organizing and re-organizing – would give me the peace of mind I was seeking through control.  And it did, for a day or so.  

Productivity mis-led my heart for years until I realized in all of my excessive planning,  I rarely brought any of it before God in prayer.  In fact, I had left God out of every element of my life.  Sure I considered myself a "believer" but I had no consistent line of communication with my Savior and I was constantly trying to do his job.  Looking back, I can see I was on the verge of falling away without even knowing it. 

And then when I became really tired, the Holy Spirit moved in me.  I was inspired to reshape the way I managed life by learning to turn to my faith first instead of just getting better at managing the things on my to-do list.

I was looking for the true meaning of 'let go and let God' and a tangible way to implement that in my life. 

Here's what worked for me... 

1 - I PLANNED A PATH TO SEEK HIM
I made the conscience decision to choosing him over myself and planned a path to seek him. In freely seeking him, I was able to admit to myself that I am not the god of my life.  Only then was I able to surrender control and lean into the desire to get to know God better. 

If you are going to "let go and let God" in your life, you have got to wholeheartedly believe and trust in him.  To do that, you have to know him.  So seek him to get to that point. 

2 - I MADE DAILY QUIET TIME A PRIORITY
I set aside a time everyday to quiet my mind from distractions and to-do lists. This is where I was able to take hold of my schedule and decide to make a priority to focusing on my spiritual health.  I used this time to read my Bible, pray and journal my prayers.

3 - I STARTED READING MY BIBLE EVERYDAY
Reading my Bible everyday is what truly enriched my relationship with God.  I didn't read it second hand from a devotional, I went straight to the source.  Why daily though? Because there's a lot to learn and doing something regularly, like practicing sports or the piano, will mature your knowledge, actions and understanding of God's word. And that's exactly what it did.

4 - I WROTE THE WORD
I wanted to immerse myself in scripture, and KNOW IT, so I wrote it down. When you write something down, your brain registers it in a way that reading something alone can't compare.  According to Forbes, handwriting increases neural activity in certain sections of the brain, similar to meditation. Handwriting also sharpens the brain and helps us learn and handwriting forces us to slow down. So, a part of studying God's word is writing God's word....not just reading it. It is cracking open your personal Bible and studying it yourself. It's highlighting the scriptures and bookmarking the pages and coming back to those things when you need it most in life.

5 - I USED A TOOL TO HELP ME REMEMBER TO DO ALL THESE THINGS
I made myself a planner that reminded me to do my daily quiet time and write scripture everyday.  We use a lot of tools in this life to keep us on track – a daily planner to remember tasks and appointments, a personal trainer at the gym, an alarm to wake us in the morning and another app that measures our steps throughout the day on our wrist.  These reminders keep us at the top of our worldly game, but what's reminding us to do the things that enrich our hope in heaven? 

You might think using a planner to "let go" is contraindicative to the point, but it's actually very helpful to pair what you lift up in prayer to the Lord with what you need to plan for in this world to find the balance between the two. 

That is my story to reinvigorating my faith and finding child-like wonder in Christ as an adult. 

Here are a few more resources I wrote on the topic you might find helpful too...

• Choosing Faith: Can We Find Balance Between Planning and Peace?
• Finding your Why Before Beginning a Daily Bible Study Will Help you Find the Time
• What Will I Gain By Reading The Bible Everyday?
• Where I Started My Bible Study

Comment below and tell me.....
How would you rate your spiritual health on a scale from 1👎 - 10👍? ⁠ If your faith isn't mature enough to where you can confidently leave your plans at the cross, what do you think you can do to truly let go and let God? ⁠

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PS - these amazing family portraits are by my friend Kate Gardiner Photography