A few years ago I read a piece by T.D. Jakes called “Let It Go.” This message has loudly resounded in my head for almost a decade now. Here recently, I’ve found myself having to live that same message.

There is so much power in letting go. Whether it’s a person, a bad habit, a relationship, a friendship, unforgiveness (towards others or yourself), heart breaks and aches, bitterness, resentment, or even your own will. Whatever it is that we are struggling to let go of, we have to understand that if God is requiring us to let it go, He has something so much better waiting for us. Holding on to things and people that we need to let go of keeps us in a prison that we have the keys to. As crazy as that may sound, we do it all the time!

Something that I’ve recently been struggling with is letting people go. I’ve always been the type of person who considered myself to have life long friends. This meant once we were friends, we would be friends until one of us stopped breathing. Over the past year, two people who’d been “doing life” with me for almost a decade and the other nearly two decades suddenly chose to walk away. Without reason and without notice, I looked up and they were gone.

Of course I’ve had a million and one “whys.” I’ve rattled my brain trying to figure out where I’ve offended them. I’ve offered unaccepted apologies. I’ve cried. I’ve prayed. I’ve done everything that I know to do to try to make things right, but nothing has changed the situations.

So I’ve had to come to some uncomfortable but necessary realizations. Some things (including people) are only assigned to our lives for a season. When we think of the word season, we usually think of a short period. However, that’s not always how God dictates it. A season can last a few months, a few years, or even a few decades. However, after you’ve poured into a person all that God has desired for you to pour in and you’ve received everything you were to receive and vice versa, your assignment to their life and their assignment to yours is up.

The issue is, we get so comfortable with their presence that we find it difficult to let them go. We plan out our lives and we put people in places far down the road that God never intended for them to be. So when the assignment is over and God uproots them out of our lives, we feel hurt, confused, angry, and all sort of other emotions. Like a child, we kick and scream and ask why when we can no longer have what we want.

Like I stated earlier, I’ve went through all of those emotions, but after I got over myself, I began to think clearly and get some great revelation. Just because the season is over, there doesn’t have to be beef between you and the other person. You don’t have to hold any malice or ill intent in your heart towards them. Their exit out of your life does not eradicate the good fruit that was produced from their presence. No, you may not understand it, but you can always trust God when He is supernaturally orchestrating your life. I love how in Isaiah 55:8 (NLT) God reminds us: “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.” So earnestly pray for them and wish them God’s absolute best! Appreciate and cherish those that God has chosen to stay and keep it moving.

It takes guts to let go of something or someone that you hold near and dear to you, but it’s often times necessary. Use those keys and open that prison door. Free yourself! It may be uncomfortable right now, but I promise you, you will be ok and life will go on. You have too much life to live to get stuck here. Destiny’s child said it best “Ain’t no feeling like being free, when your mind is made up and your heart is in the right place!” So simply put, LET IT GO!