How to Loosen Your Grip on Earthly Concerns
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Tough circumstances in life can cause a believer’s head to spin. White-knuckled grasping for more on earth or anxiously holding on to prevent loss can cause Christians great distress. God doesn’t want His children to live that way.
The Bible offers suggestions how to better deal with our earthly concerns, and counsel that can help us loosen our grip.
1. Prioritize an Eternal Perspective
When we cling to an eternal perspective, holding fast to heavenly realities, we’re more likely to loosen our grip on earthly concerns. Paul advised believers to focus on unseen, eternal things (2 Corinthians 4:17-18). We do this not by conforming to the cultural values of this world, but by allowing God to transform our thinking through His Word.
Furthermore, if our lives are filled with many possessions, we’ll be burdened with many cares and concerns — unless we have an eternal perspective of those possessions. Life is more than the abundance of things we possess on earth. It’s about the treasures we send ahead to heaven.
Discovering what God values and putting our focus there is helpful. This might include loving people the way He does and, therefore, wanting them to join us in eternity or giving to help the poor and needy. Perhaps in our discovery, we’ll realize some things that hinder us from that focus, things we will want to purge from our lives. Many of our cares might lessen or disappear as we learn to value what God values in terms of eternity.
Fixing our hearts on eternal treasures and values will likely help us relax our grasp or even release the things that concern us so much on earth.
2. Renew Trust in Your Faithful Father God
Jeremiah wrote this powerful statement in Lamentations 3:22-23: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning.” He ends his statement with a declaration — “Great is your faithfulness.” Do we, as Christians, believe God is faithful to us in love? Do anxious responses reveal we’re not truly trusting Him?
Father God is faithful. He is faithful to establish you and guard you against the evil one (2 Thessalonians 3:3). He abounds in faithfulness (Exodus 34:6).
God will generously meet your needs (Matthew 7:11; Philippians 4:6, 19). You can rely on His character and promises when earthly cares threaten to destroy your peace. As you deepen your relationship with God through Bible study and prayer, actively recall times when God met your needs or calmed your concerns, perhaps in ways you could not have imagined.
Sometimes, it might seem that God does not meet our needs. We may wonder why He delays in answering our requests for help. But later, we might discover our loving Father was meeting a greater need, making us more like His Son.
God wants us to be honest with Him about our doubts and uncertainties, but it’s essential to trust Him and surrender to His timing for provision. And if His answer is “no,” we still trust His will. Humble faith says, “Even if the answer does not come, Father, I will still trust You.” While it may feel like earthly cares crush us, we must remember that God loves us, desires our good, and knows how to accomplish what’s best for us. He truly cares for you, so you do not need to be pressured by your earthly worries, concerns, and anxieties.
3. Examine Your Source of Security
What is your source of security? Is it your money? Your job? A role or position you hold? A relationship? Things and people can never fully anchor us. Proper stability only comes in something that can never change.
Our only lasting security is wrapped up not only in the love of God but also in His faithfulness. God the Father commits to act kindly and mercifully toward those who belong to Him through Christ (Psalm 36:5). He is faithful to forgive. God the Son, who is the same yesterday and today and forever, remains faithful toward believers even if they fail the Lord through sin (Hebrews 13:8; 2 Timothy 2:13). When our grip on Him is weak, His grip on us is forever firm. The third part of the Trinity, God the Spirit, also plays a part in our security. He marks us as God’s possessions and cultivates faithfulness within us.
In “Hold Lightly to Earthly Things,” C.S. Spurgeon said, “Let us keep in mind the frail tenure upon which we hold our temporal mercies.” Placing hope in anything but God is foolish because everything earthly can be removed, lost, or destroyed. Peter said, “Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be?” (2 Peter 3:11.)
Remembering that God is the unchanging source of our security will change who we are, what we value, what we say, and what we do.
4. Root Out the Grip of Fear
Most of the anxieties we face about earthly concerns are based on fears for the future. We think we have control, but it’s an illusion (James 4:13-14). We don’t know what the next day will bring, let alone our future.
James offers the solution to our anxiety: “Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that’” (James 4:15). No matter what the believer faces, it’s the Lord’s good and perfect will that matters, and resting in that truth, we can be released from the grip of fear.
In “You Can Loosen Your Grip on the Future,” Jen Oshman wrote, “The hands that hold our future are the same hands that were pierced for us.” Remembering the cross of our Savior will help us uncurl our fingers and approach life with open hands and an open heart toward God. Anything we face is a tool in God’s hands to help us become more like Jesus.
God spoke through the prophet Isaiah, “For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you” (Isaiah 41:13). It’s comforting to know that because God holds our hand, we can loosen our fearful grip on earthly concerns. His presence is pivotal for us.
5. Break Free from Controlling Habits
Another reason it’s so hard to loosen our grip on earthly concerns is our bondage to controlling habits and their accompanying emotions. Controlling habits are anything that becomes addictive, whether it’s food, drink, hobbies, or activities — you name it!
Here’s a practical example. Hoarders and some shopaholics are in bondage to the controlling habit of always wanting more. Emotions accompanying this habit might include a need to be admired, jealousy, boredom, a love for the world, or a spirit of discontent.
An old proverb reminds us there are no pockets in a shroud. No matter how much we accumulate, we can’t take any of it with us. Paul advised Timothy, “For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out” (1 Timothy 6:7). In forgetting that truth, the shopaholic or hoarder amasses more and more “stuff” to maintain and protect, and potential loss or destruction increases concerns.
When any habit grows out of control in a Christian’s life, it escalates concerns. Both the habit and the anxiety can be demolished through freedom in Christ, the application of powerful truths found in the Word of God, and, in some cases, the wisdom of a biblical counselor.
6. Relax, Knowing It’s All in God’s Hands
If we don’t learn to hold everything lightly, we’re setting ourselves up for pain when God uses tough circumstances to pry open our clutching hands! Some Christians clutch things tightly because they falsely believe they own them, but God owns everything we may think we own (Deuteronomy 10:14).
God taught me that concept when, as a young married woman, I begged my husband for some things we could not afford. The Lord taught me the biblical truth about ownership. I walked through my house that day, pointing to things and praying aloud, “That is Yours, Father. And that. And that.” Sometime later, I read part of an old sermon, “An Instructive Truth,” by Charles Spurgeon. “Hold everything earthly with a loose hand,” he said, “but grasp eternal things with a death-like grip.”
After that, God taught me the grace of giving instead of hoarding earthly treasures — and where I should store true treasures instead.
Jesus told the story of a man who owned many things. In a purposefully exaggerated request, Jesus asked him to sell it all and give money to the poor (Mark 10:17-25). Jesus wants His followers to understand that we can be lured away from trusting God if we cannot loosen our grip on things and the earthly concerns they bring. Unable to loosen his grasp, the man went away grieving.
We loosen our grip on earthly concerns as we prioritize an eternal perspective, trust our faithful Father, and acknowledge His ownership of all we have. Our security is in His hands now, and it always will be. We need not fear.
So breathe! Loosen your grip. Let go of the things that hinder you so you can move forward in faith.
Photo credit: ©Getty Images/Roman Donar / EyeEm
