Don’t Look Back

 

Sodom was a bad place. God executed righteous judgment. His messengers had warned Lot that he should go, take his family, and not look back. God was rescuing them from the judgment.

I cannot even imagine how difficult it must have been for Lot’s wife to know that the place she had lived, raised her children, and relished close friendships was burning behind her. She and her family were given the privilege of a warning to leave it before the judgment.  How painful to think about all that was going on as she fled.

From a human perspective Lot’s wife must have been distraught over her loss, perhaps wishing she could stay. She disobeyed God and looked back. This warning came in Genesis 19:17, “And as they brought them out, one said, “Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.” After she looked back we read in Genesis 19:26, “But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.”

Pillars of Salt

Pillars of salt are statues. They cannot move. They cannot love. They cannot serve. They are dead.

How fitting a picture this passage is of those who look back at the hardships of the past as if they were in the present. I understand that we cannot completely wipe out memories  or live as if no troubles have occurred. But the one who continually looks back, who spends more time looking at what has happened in the past than they do at God’s mercies, which are new every morning, is like a pillar of salt….useless in the Kingdom of God.

Using the Pain

Last Saturday at the Iron Sharpens Iron conference in Carlisle, PA I heard the testimony of Mary James, a keynote speaker who suffered terribly in her childhood.  I sat and wondered why it was that she could stand before a couple hundred women and speak and sing (beautifully!).  Some others with similar experiences seem immobilized by them.

She had channeled her hurt into a ministry to help with the healing of others. She lived in gratitude to God, not resentment toward people or experiences. She looked back and talked about the hope of the Lord. She testified about His faithfulness to her and her children.

A Choice to Make

It seems we all have the same choice. We can keep looking back with the consequences of bitterness and resentment over what was not or longing for what might have been, or we can look for the blessings of the Lord in our current circumstances. We can decide (with the help of the Holy Spirit) to let the past go. Not that we forget what has happened, but accept it as part of our history and  forgive those who have sinned against us as God has forgiven us for sinning against Him. Then, serve the Lord with gladness for bringing us out of those bad times.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

God is good and He will use all of our hardship for our good and His glory – when we let Him. Are you preserving the old life, looking back, hanging onto what has been? Or, are you looking to the Lord for what could be?