Releasing attachments, as an act of Love, is the most difficult expression for anyone. AS an example, parents must release children in order for them to mature and make decisions on their own. Your past may be an attachment that you are trying to hold on to and relive day after day. Doctrines can be attachments that no longer apply as new revelation comes forth. Giving up control, money, possessions, and any other aspect of your life that would try to keep you subservient to its conditions are tough to release.
“Self” wants to hold on to things and conditions. Love releases as an expression of itself. A bird cannot live in the nest forever but is pushed out by its mother. FATHER released us into this physical life to become separate expressions of Love but of our choice not HIS. HE gave us the right to choose and released us to make those decisions rather than us operating as robots according to HIS Will.
Everything you Love will not depart from you but that which you don’t Love needs to be released so that it does not restrict you from fulfilling your calling. Fear and hatred must be released through forgiveness. Jesus focused on how Love moves you toward perfection and maturing in Matthew chapter 5:
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,
45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
47 And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so?
48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Fear of the unknown causes people to become hoarders. My mother and dad lived next door to such a person. The lady kept everything including magazines, newspapers, and mail. Her living room was a maze with narrow paths around all the materials she hoarded. Women buy excessive clothing; men buy tools they never use; people save every penny in fear that they will not have enough money to sustain themselves. When I was in banking, I knew a man who at the time was worth more than $25 million yet he rode around in an old dilapidated truck and lived in a house in disrepair. He had a deep-seated fear of lack and would not spend any money. How much did he leave his heirs? All of it!
In Matthew 6, Jesus addresses this fear:
25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
We must have faith and trust in Our Heavenly Father. Until we do, we will keep our attachments and not let them go. Those attachments become clutter and complicate our lives hindering our ability to be expressions of Love to others. We rent storage space to accumulate more and more until one day those possessions have deteriorated to worthlessness. We finally throw them away instead of giving them to those in need while they were still of use and value.
If each of us will rightly assess the attachments that want to cling to us and jettison them out of our midst, FATHER will expand our stewardship and influence. Selfishness wants to keep those attachments no matter what they are. Jesus did not maintain multiple houses, storage spaces, or massive wardrobes. His simplicity of life is an excellent example of how we should live. When He needed resources, He commanded them by Love to come forth. He had the necessary faith, trust, and expectation that FATHER would provide His every need. FATHER will do that for you and me as well. Simplicity promotes flexibility and frees us up to respond to HIS Plan, Will, and Purpose. Complexity and attachments weight us down and we become servants to structure. We must be willing to let go!