Leaving the Past Behind

Please first read Genesis 19:14-26.

"But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt."  (Genesis 19:26, NKJV)

Lot received word from some men that the Lord was going to destroy the city.  He was told to take all of his family and get out of the the region immediately.

They all obeyed the orders they received from the Lord.  He destroyed the cities where they had left earlier.  Everyone and everything was destroyed there.

Then, Lot's wife looked back behind and she became a pillar of salt.  She was destroyed for looking back.

Lot's wife looked back and was destroyed for doing so.

What can we learn from this part of scripture?

For one, we need to obey the Lord because He has our best interest at heart.  Also, it does not do us any good to look back behind us.  If anything, it can have tragic consequences for us and our loved ones.

There are also plenty of other lessons to learn from that particular passage.

However, in the Apostle Paul's letter to the church at Philippi, he talks about forgetting those things behind.

"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 3:13-14, NKJV)  

Like Paul, he encouraged the believers there to press toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call in Jesus Christ.  He did not want them stay stuck in the past but to forget everything behind them.

In the same way, God does not want His children to be stuck in the past.  He desires all of them to forget everything behind them and move forward into the future.  He wants them to move further into their God-given purpose and plan.  Be who He has created them and called them to be for His perfect will.  Then, and only then, will God truly be honored and glorified in and through them.


Copyright 2015 by Dawn Freeman. All rights reserved.