In all our relationships, we need to be listening to God’s guidance. Sometimes He might tell us that we need to let someone go, and if that’s the case, we shouldn’t try and hold on to the relationship. If we keep holding on, we can end up feeling like we’re in an emotional storm where we’re torn between doing what we want to do and doing what God wants us to do. Until we obey God, the storm we’re in will keep getting worse, as in the case of Jonah. The Bible says: ‘The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?” “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”  Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder…Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm’ (vv.11-15 NIV). Sometimes we have to make the decision to let people go so that the storm can calm in our lives too. God loves everyone and has plans for everyone’s lives, but other people can sometimes get in the way of us fulfilling those plans. God wanted Jonah to go to Nineveh, but he went the opposite way. The people on the boat were not the right people for Jonah to be with – he needed to be going towards Nineveh, while they needed to go in another direction. In our lives, there may be people who are taking us the opposite way to God’s plan for us, or we might be holding others back from what God has in store for them. We need to consider and ask God whether we should let them go.

What Now?

Is there a relationship or friendship you’re holding on to that God is telling you isn’t right? Ask God for the courage to let go.