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Jun 27, 2025 06:00am

Let Go and Be Free

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Signs were posted. Warnings were clear. High water, no swimming.
But…

It seemed okay. It didn’t look that bad. No one would know.

She just wanted to feel the coolness of the water on her feet.
She slipped off her shoes and began the descent down the embankment to the water.

She was only about ankle deep, feeling the rush of the water against her legs, when her foot slipped on the rock. It wasn’t very deep at first, but even with her best efforts to swim, she was being pulled to the deeper water.

A dangerous current swept her further downriver. Something brushed against her, and she grabbed a hold of it. She was clinging to a tree, screaming for help when the rescuers pulled up. Her arms ached, her muscles screamed with pain as she fought to keep hold as the water rushed at her, threatening to take her once again.

A hand reached out. He gripped His arms around her and tried to pull her to safety. But she was holding onto that tree with every ounce of strength she had left.

“You have to let go!”

She was scared. She knew in her mind He was trying to help, but she just couldn’t let go.

“You’ll die if you don’t let go!”

He yelled above the sounds of the rushing water, and somehow, it finally got through to her. She released her grip and surrendered to His offer of help.

Safe. Alive. Free.

With a blanket wrapped around her, she cried and vowed never to go back into the high water again.

1 Corinthians 6:9–11
“Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, 10 or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. 11 Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

Sin was rampant in Corinth. Even at the so-called temples, male prostitutes were paid to service women and men who came to “worship” these false gods. Paul was telling the believers that the Kingdom of God was pure. The vile things of this world have no place in God’s Kingdom.

He wasn’t saying those people couldn’t be saved. He was pointing out that they could be saved. As he said, there were many believers in the church that had once been a part of those practices and that lifestyle. But when they believed, when they had been saved, that changed everything.

The old life—the one filled with sin, the one that tempted them but threatened to wash them downriver in a furious rush—was in the past.

Christ wanted them to be saved, to be freed; they just had to let go.

That tree that the woman clung to in the river seemed like it was saving her life. But it required her strength to last. The only true way she could experience freedom and life was to let go and trust the One who offered salvation.

When we are saved by Christ, we are completely freed of our sins. They hold no power over us any longer. But far too often, we are tempted to return to them, clinging to the past things that we thought helped us when times were hard.

The Kingdom of God has no place for those things. We have to let go. We have to move forward. Loosen your grip on this world and allow the arms of the Lord to pull you to safety. And walk hand in hand with Him into His Kingdom.

Are you ready? It may seem a little scary, but it’s time. There is an incredible, abundant, and beautiful life that awaits you—one where sin no longer has power over you. Let me show you. Go to follow.lifeword.org to begin. Or in Spanish at follow.lifeword.org/spanish.