"But Lot’s wife looked back as she was following behind him, and she turned into a pillar of salt." Genesis 19:26 NLT
One day I was jogging. I enjoy jogging and this day in particular was fantastic. It was a warm midsummer morning. I was in the foothills of the California Sierra Nevada mountains. As I was jogging, a dog came toward me. I have a fear of dogs. When I was a teenager I was attacked by a couple of dogs. I tried not to show any fear and kept jogging. As I approached the dog, I looked at it out of the corner of my eye. It just looked at me. When I passed the dog, I started to turn around and look back. Then I remembered Lot's wife.
The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were wicked. God planned on destroying them. However, He knew that Lot was a righteous man. So God chose to save Lot and his family before He destroyed their city. God's angels told Lot and his family to leave the city and not look back. As Lot's family left the city, his wife did looked back. She was stopped, dead in her tracks. I don't know why she looked back, but she did.
Many of us are like Lot's wife. We look back. We look back at past failures. We look back at past sins. We look back to old hurts, abuse, and anything else. And we get stopped dead in our tracks. I have a relative who is now in his eighties. When he was young his mother spoke a very harsh word to him. He never got over the hurt. His past kept him from being able to emotionally move forward. I lived in Yosemite Park for many years. God called my family to ministry in Colorado. Whenever it got rough, I would look back to Yosemite. The Lord had to bring us back to Yosemite, so I would get it out of my system. Only then, could we move forward in the call that God had for us.
What are you looking back at? What past failure, hurt, anger or pleasure is keeping you from moving forward into the life God has planned for you?
Give your past to Jesus so you can fully live in His present.
"But Jesus told him, “Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.” Luke 9:62 NLT
Eric. Thanks for this posting. I have failed in this because I often look back at things in the past too. I know deep inside of me I can't do anything about the past, so I ask myself than why go back there. The Lord keeps reminding me I am the future not the past, what I have for you is in the future. So every morning I ask him what do you have for me today.
ReplyDeleteI will keep reading your blog so I can be inspired.
Thanks <><
Jane