Stop Looking Back!

Hello everyone!

This morning I woke up thinking about the scripture in the Bible where Lot’s wife looked back at the city of Sodom. In the 19th chapter of Genesis, you can read about how Sodom and Gomorrah were going to be destroyed because of their sins. Two angels went to warn Lot, and they told him to take his family and leave, but don’t look back.

Further down in that chapter when Lot, his wife, and their daughters escape, his wife decides to turn around and look back at the destruction of the city despite the warning of the angels. Due to her disobedience, it says she turned into a pillar of salt.

As I read this scripture today, I saw a valuable lesson in this, from a slightly different perspective. If we spend our time looking back at our past, it can hinder us from moving forward. Sometimes we’re so focused on past failures, past hurt, or past mistakes that it paralyzes us from moving on. Fear, anxiety, or even bitterness can develop. We become afraid of trying new things because of past failures. We become afraid of trusting anyone because of being hurt by others. Sometimes we may even be too afraid to trust and believe God for things He has promised us because things in the past didn’t work out the way we thought they would.

Fear, anxiety, and bitterness; none of these things are of God. All of these things are paralyzing and can hinder you.

Living in the past can hinder your blessings in the future!

We need to forgive ourselves for past mistakes, and also forgive others that have hurt us. Holding on to these things prevent us from moving forward, and moving on with our lives. We need to ask God to heal us and deliver us from our past. Once God sets us free, we need to walk in our liberty and don’t look back!

Lot and his family were free. All they had to do was keep moving, but his wife looked back.

If you still feel bound by your past, please ask God to deliver you from it. After He sets you free, let it go and stop looking back. Don’t dwell on negative experiences or people. Don’t dwell on the mistakes you made, past failures, or things people may have said or done. Let it go and move forward.

Don’t let your past dictate your future!

John 8:36 says, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”

1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Philippians 3:13-14 says, “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.”

My prayer this week is that we will all leave our past in the rearview mirror. Leave it right where it is…behind us. Let’s stop looking back, and start looking up. If we look up, (meaning looking towards God), then He will help us to move forward.

God bless you all!