Looking back didn’t go so well for Lot’s wife. In the scriptures we see two angels warning Lot, “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.’ When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them. As 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!’ By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah, from out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities, and also the vegetation in the land. But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.” Genesis 19: 15-16, 23 and 26.
Seven years ago, when God set Mark and me on this journey, I went through a season of looking back. For a year or so, I looked back and wondered if I had wrongly influenced Mark in stepping down from his position at our church. But, over and over again, he reassured me that if he were to make the decision all over again, he would step down because he felt strongly that it was what God was leading him to do. But, I looked back.
For the next two years, I looked back and longed for my old life: my house, my stuff, my things, the nice salary, the retirement package, and the health and dental insurance. I missed my “normal” life. At that point, I fully anticipated that Mark would wake up one morning next to a pillar of salt!! God was being abundantly merciful and patient with me. Little did I know that He had anything but “normal” ahead for us. He wanted to do more than a “normal” work in our hearts and lives; for God does not deal in the “normal.”
In the last two years, I have come to the place of looking back, but only for the purpose of seeing where I no longer want to be! I look back and think, “I don’t ever want to go back: back to my stuff, my things, my shallow thinking, my shallow walk, and my stagnant relationship with my heavenly Father. The Father has had so much more for me. Lot’s wife wanted to stay where she was. It was comfortable, she had all she wanted; her things were in Sodom. God was exercising mercy in giving her an opportunity to escape from the “normal” to something much better; yet she longed to stay where she was. She just could not let go; she looked back, longing to return, and she ended up a pile of salt on the road outside Sodom. No going back!
Where does God desire to take you, but you are refusing to go? What is it that you hold dearer than Him? Do you keep looking back wishing you could return to the way things used to be? Are you willing to settle for “normal,” when God has His supernatural for you? Lot’s wife settled and lost everything!
Father, help me to accept the road you have me on. I want to let go of all, and cling to You, never looking back and longing for what was. Thank you for your patience and mercy poured out on me daily, as I forge forward, away from the things that had me bound and closer to You. Lord, you are the dearest thing to me!
“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:12-14
“Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or the left; remove your foot from evil.” Proverbs 4:26-27
“Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth! Sing out the honor of His name; make His praise glorious. Say to God, ‘How awesome are Your works!’ Come and see the works of God; He is awesome in His doing toward the sons of men.
He turned the sea into dry land; oh, bless our God, you peoples! And make the voice of His praise to be heard, who keeps our soul among the living, and does not allow our feet to be moved. For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us as silver is refined. We went through fire and through water; but You brought us out to rich fulfillment.” Psalm 66:1-3,5-6,8-10