Don’t Look Back…Keep on Going!
This is a re-run of an earlier post I published here–but I felt it significant for today…There is someone who stopped by here today–perhaps you’ve wandered from the fold–maybe even contemplated giving up…
Don’t look back. Keep going on for Christ Jesus. No matter what the battle has been like…no matter what frivolous things you may have in your life that you may desire to “cling to”…
Cling only to the cross.
And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city. Genesis 19:15
And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed. Genesis 19:17
But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. Genesis 19:26
I always wondered what caused Lot’s wife to linger. Why did she look back? What was worth her very life? The home? I can’t imagine how….was it the shopping in the city that she thought she’d miss? Was it friends she was leaving behind? Surely she knew that nothing was worth disobeying the very messengers sent from the I AM of their lives. But look back she did. A lesson learned.
The story of Lot is not one of my favorites….as a matter of fact, I am not fond of Lot, nor his daughters. But I felt pity for the wife. For some reason—she looked back. As I read this account of their lives I was amazed at the way they acted and the off-handed way they seemed to treat the “Word from God”. Do we do that?
Do we shrug off the sermons, Sunday after Sunday thinking—or rather not thinking at all—of the importance of His Word? His very Word—His Gift to us. So undeserving…and instead of looking at the cross and being thankful for mercy….we all too often look back.
At what? What is it out there that we would rather seek the world than seek Christ? I have been in that very place of “looking back”. Right now, what I see when I look back is a woman, who in her younger years could have done more for God. Could have dug in and grasped more and shared more. Could have learned more. Could have sought Him more. But so much time was wasted. I had “my own plans” and ideas to explore when school was finally over for me. Explore them I did! And I failed.
Maybe I didn’t turn into a pillar of salt….but I looked to the world to bring me satisfaction and peace. Instead of looking to the peace speaker I know and love today. As I looked in the wrong direction….I was just minutes away from being turned into a pillar of salt. I remember the very highway….and I know exactly where I was…there was nothing worth “looking back for”. The world can bring no satisfaction to the life starved soul. It only causes more thirst. It feels like you have eaten something that is salty and for the life of you—you can’t seem to quench the thirst you feel.
That thirst is Christ. When we open our lives to Him and drink Him in…our lives are forever changed…and we will never thirst again. Only Jesus—can truly satisfy our hearts and lives. God was merciful to me. As I was “running” from Him in my late teens and my barely 20’s…He was full of mercy. Forgiving me for my sin and the way I had “disregarded His love”. I was not deserving of this mercy…but He extended it to me.
When I finally came to my senses and realized that I was wasting my life looking in the wrong direction, trying to please only me….I realized where Life really was. Found only in Him. I didn’t look back. Only forward. I fully gave all I had to Jesus Christ, holding nothing back —-knowing that there was and would not be another life for me but this life with Christ. I feel even more strongly about that today.
I have no desire for the things of this world. It has nothing to offer me. The Father in heaven has His plan and design for my life….and I am His for the using.
Father, here I am…Yours…use me. Show me. Direct me to Your paths. Your plan is the only plan I want for my life. I ask that You would give me a desire for more of You than I have ever experienced. My heart cries out to You to be filled to overflowing…that as I go through each day…splashes of You fall all around. You are all I desire. Flood my life with Your Presence. Your peace. Your love. In the precious holy name of Your only Son, Jesus~Amen.
(c) Angie Knight-The Knightly News. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Amen to that my friend. Funny thing, I was just talking to one my friends about walking without God. Yes, I was fooled by the ‘shiny’ things of the world, but Jesus is the only One who can satisfy.
Amen, amen.