The Best Advice I Ever Received

A few years ago, I was in a season of change, and I was struggling. I was feeling caught in the middle of wanting to move forward, yet not wanting to let go of some things. I knew holding on wasn’t making me happy or healthy, but there was security and familiarity in the things I was holding on to, no matter how much tumoil, anguish, and frustration I was feeling. 

My friend Jack, knowing how I was feeling, gave me a piece of advice I didn’t want to hear at the time, but was absolutely what I needed. 

“It’s like you’re like this,” he said, holding his arms out with his fists clenched. “You’re closed up and holding so tightly to things that are hurting you and holding you down.”

Jack then opened the palms of his hands towards me. “When you open your hands, God can put more in them. Closed hands mean you’re closed from God’s blessings. Open hands mean you’re open to God putting blessings in your hands and letting them overflow to others. God wants to give you something, but He can’t and won’t when you’re holding on to nothing.”

As much as it pained me to admit it, Jack was right (he loves hearing me say that). I couldn’t receive anything good that God was trying to give me because I was holding so tightly to things that I thought mattered, but really didn’t.

Since then, I’ve tried to keep an open hand policy. I try now not to hold on to anything tighter than I hold on to God. 

It was advice I needed and it came at the right time. What’s the best piece of advice you ever received? 

“But forget all that—it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.” – Isaiah 43:18-19

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take.” – Proverbs 3:5-6