I know this week should be the fourth installment of the parenting series. I couldn’t help but pause that series because of a profound thought I had while meeting with a client recently.
I began thinking about how many times we hold tight to the counterfeit at the sacrifice of the genuine. It always seems that people want to hold on to the counterfeit for fear of what unknown might be involved in letting go.
Let me explain. I have this vision of you with $1 million dollars. You ASSUME it is genuine but I KNOW that they are counterfeit funds. Because of the amount involved, it would be difficult for you to let it go. You would believe that you have the right to spend it. You would believe that it belongs to you. All the while I would know that what seemed legitimate were in fact counterfeit funds. When you went to spend it or use it it would be completely useless.
If you think about it, God is like this with us so many times. He sees what we have and knows that it is counterfeit. He knows it if we hold on tight to those “counterfeit funds” that when we go to “spend” those “funds” it will be useless. He knows that we are wasting our time. Why is it so hard for us to let go of the counterfeit to take hold of the genuine? I have this vision of the Lord just standing there with a pile of money ready to hand it out but our arms are only big enough to keep one or the other, we can’t hold or manage the fake and the genuine at the same time.
I hate that there are so many things in my own life that were counterfeit funds that I preferred over the genuine. I have come to a place where I’ve decided that I’m not going to let go of the fake but instead embrace the real. I don’t want to trade an ASSUMPTION for true KNOWLEDGE. I want to take the time to truly assess if what is in my hands is real. If what I am holding onto will truly spend in the end.
So what about you? Are you holding something counterfeit or something genuine? Are you trying to hold both? It is simple to decide- just ask. He will tell you what to hold and what to release.