“No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead” ( Phillipians 3:13).
It seems funny but in truth it happens all the time. When God rescued Lot from rapists and told him to gather all his family and flee because of the impending doom to fall upon Sodom and Gomorrah, there was no much time for small things. “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). Lot left in a hurry, “Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord 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” ( vv 24-25).
Mind you the message to Lot had been, “Don’t look back” just flee for your safety. Yet as we know curriosity killed the cat! This is what happened. “But Lots wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt” ( vv 25).
That follly can happen too in our good Christian lives. While the Lord has rescued us from Egypt we rather than setting our eyes on to the Promised land, look back to our past land of captivity. Just as the grass is often greener the other side, our past can also look more rosy and attractive. “We remember the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt. And we had all the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic we wanted” ( Numbers 11:5), the rebellious Israelites accused Moses as he led them. Of course it was all a lie; these people had just been delivered from the yoke of slavery, but that’s what happens with the habit of looking back!
God has rescued you from a terrible past and there is nothing good there was in your former life where you were lost. Now, like Paul, only look forward to the glory that lies ahead!
Prayer today: Lord Father God of Abraham, maker of heaven and earth, I am thankful for rescuing me from a terrible bitter past, and so help me ever look forward to the hope that is in you, all to your glory, this I pray in Jesus’s name!
