Holding On When You Want to Let Go: Clinging to Hope When Life Is Falling Apart

By Sheila Walsh

Are you struggling today? Do you look back and long for what used to be, or are you looking ahead and have no idea what's coming? Are you stuck in the middle of a mess because life has not turned out as you expected? When you run to God for answers, do you often feel like you aren't getting them--or at least aren't getting the answers you want? Are you holding on . . . but not sure how much longer you can?

In times of not knowing, Sheila Walsh offers a lifeline of hope. With great compassion born of experience and hardship, Walsh comes alongside the hurting, fearful, and exhausted to remind us that we serve a God who is so much greater than our momentary troubles, no matter how insurmountable they feel. She doesn't offer a quick fix. She offers a God fix. Sharing from her own painful struggles and digging deep into biblical stories of rescue, hope, and miracles, she gives you the strength to keep going, to keep holding on to God in a world turned upside down. The accompanying study includes 10 lessons to help individuals or groups dive deeper.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
• Release date: Sep 21, 2021
• ISBN: 9781493432899

Sheila Walsh

Sheila Walsh is a powerful communicator, Bible teacher, and bestselling author with almost six million books sold. She is the author of the award-winning Gigi, God’s Little Princess series, It’s Okay Not to Be Okay, Praying Women, Holding On When You Want to Let Go, and more. She is cohost of the inspirational talk show Life Today with James and Betty Robison, which is seen worldwide by a potential audience of over 100 million viewers. Sheila lives in Dallas, Texas, with her husband, Barry, and son, Christian, who is in graduate school.

Book preview

© 2021 by Sheila Walsh

Published by Baker Books

a division of Baker Publishing Group

PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287

www.bakerbooks.com

Ebook edition created 2021

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

ISBN: 978-1-4934-3392-6

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations labeled AMP are from the Amplified® Bible (AMP), copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org

Scripture quotations labeled ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2016

Scripture quotations labeled Message are from THE MESSAGE, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Scripture quotations labeled NIV are from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations labeled Phillips are from the New Testament in Modern English by J. B. Phillips copyright © 1960, 1972 J. B. Phillips. Administered by The Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England. Used by Permission.

Study guide written by Jerusha Clark with additional material by Sheila Walsh.

Based on and with material from Holding On When You Want to Let Go by Sheila Walsh.

The author is represented by Dupree Miller and Associates, a global literary agency. www.dupreemiller.com

Baker Publishing Group publications use paper produced from sustainable forestry practices and post-consumer waste whenever possible.

Contents

Cover

Half Title Page    1

Title Page    3

Copyright Page    4

SESSION 1. Holding On When Life Feels Out of Control    7

SESSION 2. Holding On When You Feel Alone and God Is Silent    19

SESSION 3. Holding On When You’re Afraid    31

SESSION 4. Holding On When You’ve Messed Up    43

SESSION 5. Held by the Promises of God    55

SESSION 6. Held by the God Who Rescues    67

SESSION 7. Held by the God of Miracles Who Changes Everything    79

SESSION 8. Let Go! You Are Being Held    91

Notes    103

About the Author    105

Back Cover    107

Session 1

Holding On When Life Feels Out of Control

I feel so passionately about the message of this book. Life does not give us a quick fix, but God is always moving, always working. I see this now in ways I’ve never understood before. . . . I have a six-word story now, and it became this book. Hold on and don’t let go.

Sheila Walsh

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:38–39

AS WE BEGIN this study together, let me ask you a question: Has your life turned out the way you thought it would?

If you’re anything like me, your answer is a resounding, No!

When I was twenty-one or even thirty-one years old, if someone had read me the script of what would come my way, I might very well have run for the hills or buried my head in the sand (and those would have been the reasonable options!).

Life has a habit of surprising us, doesn’t it? And sometimes of knocking us flat on our backs. Considering the staggering unpredictability of life makes me grateful that, as the apostle Paul wrote, Our great power is from God, not from ourselves. We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed (2 Cor. 4:7–9).

Don’t miss this:

Pressed but not crushed . . .

Perplexed but not driven to despair . . .

Hunted down but never abandoned . . .

Knocked down but not destroyed . . .

I believe this with all my heart. In Christ, we are more than conquerors; Romans 8:37 promises this. To be perfectly frank, however, there are days I feel more like the conquered than the conqueror. Can you relate?

If so, I invite you to journey deeper into the truths you read in Holding On When You Want to Let Go. In this companion guide, we’ll walk together, looking more intently at what God has to say and taking time to connect with Him in study, worship, and prayer.

You may recall that at the end of each chapter in the book, I included three ways to hold on to hope. Every session of this study guide will take you deeper into these sets of key principles. Right now I’d like to reintroduce you to the truths you learned in chapter 1, Holding On When Life Feels Out of Control:

We were not made to do life on our own; we need to let people into our stories.

Jesus is still writing your story, and He holds all the pieces.

No matter how things appear, God is in control.

I’m eager to begin, so let’s link arms and dive into our first truth.

It Is Not Good to Be Alone

When you look back on the year 2020, what do you remember? Masks? Social distancing? Protests and riots?

For many people, 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic became synonymous with profound loneliness. Some of us were isolated from our friends at church, work, or school; others were separated from their dearest loved ones. However isolated you felt, the pandemic experience brought to light a biblical principle that God highlighted several millennia ago: It is not good for the man to be alone (Gen. 2:18).

This stunning proclamation came after God had created a glorious world of sea, land, and sky, all teeming with life. With the advent of stars and planets, dragonflies and dolphins, God pronounced, It is good. And it was.

Then the Lord made man in His own image, filling Adam with dignity and divine purpose. Adam enjoyed unbroken fellowship with God in the garden He had designed. What could possibly be wrong with this picture? Our Lord identified only one thing as not good: isolation.

The man was not meant to be alone. And neither were you.

TRUTH #1: We were not made to do life on our own; we need to let people into our stories.

How do you respond to this truth? What thoughts or memories does it bring