Pastor's Ponderings, November 6, 2017

Don’t Look Back; Look Forward To Jesus

One of the sad stories of the bible was in Genesis where Lot’s wife was warned not to look back to the imminent destruction of Sodom. She ignored the warnings, looked back and was turned to salt (Genesis 19:15, 25, 26). What did she see?  What was she looking for in the past that was so more important than where she was going?  It may have been her friends, valuable possessions, or even memorable places.  However, what was in her past destroyed her future.

The Bible makes it clear that once you begin to work for God, looking back makes one ineligible for His kingdom (Luke 9:62). We should cease from defining our lives on what we did, but instead we should redefine our lives based on what we can do. We have to realize the futility of driving down the street only looking in the rearview mirror. The Apostle Paul testified that he forgot those things that were behind him and pressed to the mark of the high calling in Christ (Philippians 3:13-14). He encouraged us to therefore fix our eyes upon Jesus (Hebrews 12:2).

Today, our God has a great future where our destiny lies (1 Corinthians 2:9). That does not mean that we cannot learn from our past, but we must know that our greatest victory begins whenever we decide to finally throw off the confining hand of the past and embrace the wings of our future with Jesus.

Genesis 19:15, 25, 26
New International Version (NIV)

15 With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.”

25 Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land.
26 But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

Luke 9:62
Amplified Bible (AMP)

62 But Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back [to the things left behind] is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Philippians 3:13-14
New International Version (NIV)

13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,
14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Hebrews 12:2
New International Version (NIV)

2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

1 Corinthians 2:9
New International Version (NIV)

9 However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”—the things God has prepared for those who love him—