Don't Look Back

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s soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, "Flee for your lives! Don't look back, and don't stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!" (Genesis 19:17)

The command was straightforward and clear.  Lot was to take his wife and his daughters and flee the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.  He was to leave all his possessions and he was told to keep his eyes forward without looking back!  

So, Lot fled from the cities of the plane and refused to look back.  Gone was his home, gone was his position, gone was life the way he knew it.  Ahead of him lay the unknown and yet the angels had warned him not to look back.  Life lay before him and destruction lay behind him.  He had a choice, move forward toward the unknown and live, or look back toward the familiar and be destroyed.

The Scriptures tell us that Lot and his two daughters continue forward but his wife, longing for her former life, turned and glanced back toward the plane.  She instantly became a pillar of salt and became as lifeless as the scorched earth before her.

Jesus also spoke about not looking back once his followers committed to him.  In Luke 9:62 we read the following statement, “Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."  Again, we see the consequences of looking back.  We are unable to serve God if, instead of focusing on His kingdom, we focus on the life from which we are called.  When we accept Christ, we are called away from the former things and called to experience things that are new.

As we begin our twelve-month journey through this new year, let us take a lesson from these two passages of scripture.  Human nature will call us to hold on to what is familiar, to remain with what we know is comfortable, and to look back and long for former things.  The temptation to return to old habits, old lifestyles, old relationships, etc. is very strong and that is why we are told not to look back.  We decide to live for Christ and we break with our former way of life.  The only way to do this, is to move forward, and don’t look back.

Wherever you are in your walk with the Lord today, I pray you are making forward progress.  There will be places along the road where you will need to stop and rest and God will provide those times for you.  But my prayer for you is that at no time will you look back and long for the things that used to be.  God has so much more for you and everything He has is new and superior to anything in our former way of living.  I trust you are walking forward today with Him.  Remember, don’t look back!