What Has God Told You to Leave?

What has God told you to leave?

That question speaks volumes to my heart.

When I was younger, I probably would have walked away from hard things much more easily. But adulthood taught me how to stay.

For many years, I was the sole provider for our family. I couldn’t simply leave a difficult job because I was tired, frustrated, or unhappy. My family needed food on the table and a roof over their heads. So I learned to endure. I learned to show up. I learned to keep going when things were hard.

Scripture tells us:

“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” — Hebrews 12:1

Then I found running.

Running became an outlet for stress, but it also taught me an entirely new level of perseverance. I began running marathons, and over the years I completed 27 full marathons and more than 100 half marathons.

Marathon training teaches you to keep moving when your body wants to stop. Training takes months, and there are countless mornings when you don’t feel like getting out of bed, days when your legs are tired, and miles when everything in you wants to quit.

But you keep going.

You teach your body to do hard things.

And somewhere along the way, perseverance became deeply woven into who I am.

Stay.

Push through.

Don’t quit.

Keep going.

Those lessons served me well in many seasons of my life.

“Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” — James 1:4

But lately, God has been teaching me something completely different.

Sometimes obedience looks like leaving.

And for someone like me, that can be incredibly difficult.

I stayed in an abusive marriage for more than 20 years. I worked for bosses who were prideful and arrogant and who didn’t always care well for the people on their teams. I have endured difficult relationships, painful circumstances, exhausting seasons, and miles upon miles when everything inside me wanted to stop.

So walking away from a relationship or an environment can still feel like quitting to me.

Even when God is the One telling me to go.

But God.

Over the last couple of years, He has asked me to step away from places I loved. He has asked me to release relationships, not out of hatred, bitterness, or anger, but simply because He was leading me in another direction.

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!” — Isaiah 43:18–19

At first, I didn’t understand.

Why would God ask me to leave something I loved?

Why would He close a door I was willing to keep walking through?

Why would He separate me from people or places where I thought I was supposed to stay faithful?

But now I am beginning to understand.

I can see the fruit.

I see fruit in the ministry He has placed in my hands.

Abundant fruit.

Life-changing fruit.

And it is all Him.

Jesus said:

“You will recognize them by their fruits.” — Matthew 7:16

I can also see that by changing my environment, God removed barriers that may never have been broken in the old one.

Sometimes we are asking God to change our circumstances while He is asking us to leave them.

Sometimes we are praying for Him to make an environment healthy when He has already opened the door and said, “Come with Me.”

Sometimes staying isn’t faithfulness.

Sometimes leaving is obedience.

That has been one of the hardest lessons for me to learn.

There is a difference between quitting because something is difficult and releasing something because God has said its season is over.

Ecclesiastes reminds us:

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” — Ecclesiastes 3:1

Not every difficult place is a place God is asking us to leave. There are seasons when He absolutely calls us to stay, endure, forgive, grow, and persevere.

But there are also seasons when He says, “You’ve been here long enough.”

In Deuteronomy, God told His people:

“You have stayed long enough at this mountain.” — Deuteronomy 1:6

Sometimes those words are exactly what our hearts need to hear.

You’ve stayed long enough.

You’ve learned what you needed to learn.

You’ve served where you were called to serve.

Now follow Me.

And when God says go, staying can become its own form of disobedience.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.” — Proverbs 3:5–6

I’m learning that walking away doesn’t erase everything that happened there. It doesn’t mean the relationship was meaningless or the season was wasted. It doesn’t mean I have to leave angry.

I can be grateful for what God did in one season while still obeying Him when He leads me into the next.

Paul wrote:

“Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal.” — Philippians 3:13–14

Maybe that is the question for some of us today:

What has God told you to leave?

• A relationship?

• An environment?

• A position?

• A mindset?

• A version of yourself you’ve outgrown?

• A place that was right for one season but isn’t where He’s calling you now?

Don’t confuse obedience with quitting.

There are times when God will give you the strength to stay.

And there are times when that same God will give you the courage to walk away.

Both require faith.

Both require trust.

And both require us to listen closely enough to know the difference.

“Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’” — Isaiah 30:21

I spent much of my life learning how to endure.

Now God is teaching me how to release.

And I’m discovering that sometimes the greatest fruit isn’t found because we tried harder to remain where we were.

Sometimes the fruit comes because we finally trusted God enough to follow Him somewhere new.

“The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in Him.” — Psalm 37:23

I pray you will listen for His voice and have the courage to obey—even when obedience means walking away.

Because what God asks you to release may feel like a loss in the moment, but what He has waiting on the other side of your obedience may be even greater than you could imagine.

Trust His voice. Trust His timing. Trust where He is leading you.

Sometimes God asks us to leave what is familiar so He can lead us into what is fruitful.

“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” — Isaiah 43:19

Love,

Tricia