I'm examining four things we need to learn. And high on that list is our need to learn how to let go.

There are times when we simply must let go and turn situations over to God. By letting go, it does not mean we don't care, nor that we wouldn't do whatever we could do to help the situation. It simply means we recognize where our abilities end and where we relinquish situations to God's control.

For instance, most parents face this "let go" decision with their children. You raise your children the best you can, you try to teach them biblical principles, you do everything you know to help them. But at some point, you let them go. Perhaps you let them go, and they make their own mistakes. But you know there's no other way for them to learn. You let them go make their own decisions, even if you could make better ones for them. We parents have to learn to let our children go.

I answered a letter from a listener who is struggling with letting go of his dream to be married. He really wants a partner and is obsessed with that dream and just can't let go of it. Often, we have to let our dreams go—those cherished things we've been hoping and longing for. They may be very good things, like getting married. But God often wants to know if we love him more than we love our dream. And so we have to let go. Sometimes those dreams are returned to us fulfilled; sometimes they are not. But until we let go, they will possess us and rob us of joy and contentment.

We have to learn to let our burdens go. Jesus has told us to turn our heavy burdens over to him and accept his light one in exchange. I think many of us feel guilty when there's a problem in our life if we aren't feeling the burden all the time. But that's not the way God wants us to respond. He wants us to drop our burdens at his feet and just keep letting them go. I can tell you that many times I verbally tell God, "Lord, I'm dropping this right here. I'm letting it go, because it's too heavy for me."

What is it that God wants you to let go of today? Let me encourage you to do it. You can trust God. He's able to take care of the situation, but first you have to give it over to him. Un-clinch those fists right now and just keep learning to let go. You'll have to learn and re-learn, but it's an important principle to learn for your daily living.