To detach from outcome doesn’t mean you stop caring about what happens or quit boldly praying for specific things. What it does mean is that you no longer live in fear of “what if?” or lose faith when things don’t go your way. Living this way frees you to place ultimate trust in God’s provision and continued help, hope, and spiritual rest, no matter the outcome.
For the most part, we live our lives attached to outcomes. We put in a lot of effort emotionally, physically, mentally, and even spiritually to achieve specific goals and outcomes. None of this is wrong. Quite the opposite, this work is important and valid. The issue arises, however, when we pin our sense of wholeness or strive to find our identity within those specific outcomes.
Detach From Outcome and Trust God’s Abundance
It is an unnatural state for us to work towards a specific goal and release all expectations. If we are no longer going to attach our sense of wholeness to a desired outcome, there has to be a replacement.
When our desires for our future are aligned with God’s desires for us, there’s a trust factor that allows us a built-in replacement for finding our identity. We stretch our gaze into that “immeasurably more“ territory of outcomes (Ephesians 3:20). If we delight in God, we can rest in knowing our efforts are supporting God’s will and on the flip side, our desires are being supported by God. It is here that we are free to live content in our work whether or not a specific outcome is actualized.
Because in God there are no limits for time, space, or opportunity, we can rest with hope for the future. Though it takes quite a bit of prayer and spiritual discipline to seek God first “even if (fill in the blank),” when we live in that space, we can view the now and not yet with such a broader perspective and anticipation for what God will do.
“Praise the Lord, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits—
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”
{Don’t Miss: Spiritual Affirmations for Detachment From Outcome}
Detach From Outcome and Gain Spiritual Abundance
Detaching from outcome lets us lean into spiritual abundance and live in the fullness that Jesus freed us to enjoy. Spiritual abundance is actualized in a life lived to the fullest, overflowing with God’s good gifts, and an appreciation of life.
Every good thing we lack, God has in abundance. Often when we seek specific outcomes it is because we need to feel a certain way and trust a desired outcome will meet that need. It is important to look beneath an outcome to see what it represents in our lives, or what we believe achieving that specific outcome promises us.
Specific outcomes that hold power over us often have to do with relationship milestones, health, opportunities, or decisions made by someone else that deeply affects us or our children. By asking ourselves what benefit that outcome promises, we uncover the root of what we are really seeking. Maybe it’s love, peace, joy, a sense of stability, financial security, order to our chaos, creative vision of what to do next, or any other relief to our worry, fear, and anxiety.
It is also important to ask if this desired outcome takes place, will the thing we seek be permanent? If we get the answer we’re hoping for, will the peace and security be without limit? Most definitely not because things change and so do our needs.
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. ~ James 1:17
God is immutable, meaning not only that God does not change, but that God is incapable of change. No matter what you face, it will not change God’s love for you. God is steady and true. Gifts from the Source of all abundance do not rely on us, our human efforts, or any other circumstance to stay in place.
abundant life meaning
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
Though throughout the Bible we are given examples of God blessing with wealth and prosperity, as well as given advice in Proverbs on how to achieve these things in a godly way, this verse is pointing toward life itself. To live abundantly means to live in close communion with God and bear much spiritual fruit. Having an overflow of God’s spiritual gifts and generously sharing them with others is a truer explanation of what it means to have an abundant life.
Let Go and Let God Meditation
I hope you’ll join me for this let go and let God meditation that helps detach from outcome and instead trust God to provide just what you need.
This guided Christian meditation walks you through peeling back the layers of expectations and desired outcomes to uncover your true need, or what you hope to achieve by reaching a certain milestone. Examples may be security, a sense of wholeness, peace, or vision for how to proceed. Once that’s uncovered it’s easy to see that anything we need, God provides abundantly!
Detachment From Outcome As a Way of Life
When you live life attached to God, contented in your identity and wholeness in Christ, peace and every good gift can be found regardless of specific outcomes. Pain will exist in life, of course. In this method of detaching from outcome and trusting God’s provision, however, the limits of living identified by pain fall away. You have hope as an anchor rather than being defined by difficulty and disappointment. This overflowing hope, given to you by the Holy Spirit allows peace and joy to coexist with the feelings of any and every circumstance.
I love the idea of detaching from outcome and attaching to Christ! He truly is the only source of our hope!
Amen! We receive so much freedom when we make this choice!
Hi! Thank you so much for writing this piece. I need to start focusing less on outcome in my life. I am thankful that our eternity and final outcome is assured in Christ!
Detaching from outcome and attaching to Christ definitely takes spiritual discipline. Thankfully, we have an Advocate and Counselor better than any other. We are not alone in our effort!
Thank you – I needed to read this today. This world can be so fragile/fickle to put your trust into but God is not!
So true! Because this is a hope that does not disappoint!
Rachel, this has been an ongoing thing between me and God this past year. He wants me to pray but not let the ‘outcome’ have such a hold on me that I forget the joy of the journey with Him. I just LOVE all your writings! I have been introducing your blog to friends because I love it so. Thank you for another beautiful piece … 🙏❤
God is showing us the same thing, friend. And sounds like you have a jump start on me, so I welcome any nuggets of wisdom you have to offer. I so appreciate you sharing the blog with friends. That’s a huge gift! 🙏🏼💕
When we attach all of our hopes and dreams onto an outcome, we are often left disappointed. Such wise words and thanks for the reminder!
Nice post about detaching from the outcome and looking to Christ.
I have never heard it put this way before, but I love it! To detach from the outcome and instead find spiritual enjoyment from the process will help us trust in God.
I really love your insight to detach from the outcome and trust in God. For the next step. Great thoughts!
I think this is was a great post on detaching from the outcome and instead trusting God. There are so many outcomes of life that are disappointing but when we truly rest in out Identity in Christ it is then we have peace and joy overflowing. I think we sometimes get so caught up with the gifts that God gives instead of the Gift Giver and He alone is all we truly need.
This reminds me of a scene from the movie, Facing the Giants. The wife of the head coach in this movie is desperate to get pregnant. After years of disappointment, she finally confesses to God that she will love Him no matter what. Shortly after, she finds out she is pregnant. Although things may not always work out this way, it is important to remember that He loves us and that He has great plans for us, even if things don’t always work out the way we would like. Blessings, Joni
That’s a good example of detaching from outcome and putting full faith in God and placing all expectations on the Giver of Every Good Gift! Outcomes do pan out much differently, and often in a disappointing way, than what we expect. But God is still with us and his plans don’t change. As awful as experiences can be, God is capable for crafting an outcome far beyond our expectations.
I think all of us want to live an abundant life, but just don’t know how. I enjoyed your unique way of explaining how to do that…detach from outcome. Thank you for a great post! Blessings! 💗
There is great freedom in detaching from outcome and putting our expectations on Christ. We’re told God’s plans for us are good and our future is hopeful. Be blessed, Teresa!
What a powerful message that is SO NEEDED right now. No one knows what the future has in store, but God does. And if we lean into his plans for our lives, the joy will be in abundance and overflowing. Thank you for the meditation too!
Thank you for reading and sharing your thoughts! There is a lot of encouragement in the world to detach from outcome and through Jesus and the promises of God, it is made practical and doable! I hope you enjoyed the meditation!
We need to detach from the situation and attach to God. Once we do that, He will be able to provide the outcome we need. Amen
This is such a great post, not detaching from outcomes is what causes disappointments, discouragement and depression. I like how you have addressed this, so encouraging and well put together.
So much insight! Detaching from the outcome and enjoying the abundant life we currently have makes a world of difference and leaves no room for anxiety.
Detatchment is something I’ve had to learn the hard way. Once I realized I was attatching myself to the outcome instead of trusting in what God was able to do, I felt the heavy burden lifted I was unintentionally carrying. Great reminder!