No Looking Back

Wk 1 Day 7

Genesis 18-19; Psalm 3; Luke 7

Genesis 19:26
But Lot's wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

// THOUGHTS:

Sodom and Gomorrah was Lot's family's "past" life before they went to Zoar to flee away from the the destruction that God was going to bring about.

.. Lot hesitated to leave (v. 16) but he was spared.
.. Lot's wife didn't only hesitate but even more so, looked back and turned into a pillar of salt. (v. 26)

So what?  Just as how it was with Sodom and Gomorrah, the Lord wants to destroy anything in our lives that is not pleasing before Him - things that are of the past that have corrupted our lives and made us disobey Him.  It is easy to sometimes just hesitate and remain where we used to be (our past) or look back to what was there (just as Lot's wife did) - perhaps because it was comfortable and easy.  Yet, the Lord wants to destroy them all.

We must then... never look back to them anymore.  God has given Lots' wife the passage way to get out of the destruction He was about to do; yet she looked back to it.  We ought to move forward and not have anything to do with our past anymore.  God wants to remove that out.  Move on - forget the past.

// BELLE:

Yes, it's true... there are times that I still look back at the past - gazing at it and reminiscing the times of the past.  Sometimes I try to bring it back again when God already has destroyed it and now has brought me to a new place - a place of deliverance and forgiveness.  God already has forgiven things in my past and has "destroyed" those that didn't please Him.  Would I still look back?  Obviously, the answer is NO - I shouldn't.

Philippians 3:13 tells us that we have to forget what lies behind and set our hearts for what's ahead.  I must not be like Lot's wife who looked back at the past which God has already destroyed.  I have more great things coming ahead in the future because God has also prepared that for me already.  I have nothing to do with the past anymore - it has passed; it's been done and destroyed and now, I am in the present and moving to the future.

I will focus on this now.. looking ahead to what the Lord is going to do through me.

// LORD, forgive me for "looking back" and gazing at what happened in the past.  Please help me move on by setting my heart daily on the things You are going to bring new.  I pray that nothing in me will desire what was in the past or even hang on to the hurts of the past.  You have already destroyed that - forgiven and removed from my record.  Thank you for Your love; for sparing me and for bringing me to a new land of deliverance and forgiveness.  Help me live it.  In Jesus' name, amen.