Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. Welcome to another week of the month of February 2022. My prayer for you is that you will continually be strengthened by the Spirit of God to remain true to Him and never to look back till the very end of this age. Amen.
As our Lord Jesus clearly points out to us, it is only those who stand firm in their faith in Him to the very end that will ultimately experience eternal salvation (Matt 24:13). Then His apostles of old also maintain the same point in all their writings. They also show us that it is only those who stand firm in their faith to the very end that are true believers and sharers in Christ (Col 1:21-23; Heb 3:6&14). So, our walk with God is not meant to be epileptic or one that we carry on with for a while. Rather, it is meant to be from start to finish. In other words, we don’t quit or look back. We just keep on moving to the very end.
See, there is danger in quitting. And there is danger in looking back. Our Lord Jesus says, “Remember Lot’s wife.” (Luke 17:32NIV) What are we to remember about Lot’s wife? Evidently, we are not being told to remember that she was Lot’s woman or that she had some daughters for him. Rather, we are being called upon to remember an incident in her life that teaches us never to look back after we have answered the call to fellowship with God.
Lot’s wife, just like her husband, was warned by the angels God sent to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah to run for her life and to never look back. That was God’s way of showing her mercy, so that she would not be destroyed along with the wicked people of Sodom and Gomorrah. But this woman disobeyed this simple command and looked back.
Now looking back must have seemed like a totally harmless thing for her to do. I mean that looking back to see what became of Sodom and Gomorrah was not like committing adultery, stealing or being involved in homosexuality. Yet doing so came with punishment for her. She immediately turned into a pillar of salt and could no longer reach her destination of safety. So, looking back for Lot’s wife was as good as participating in the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah. (Cf. Gen 19)
But what made her look back? We are not told in any clear words in the bible. Whatever it was, it made her lose her life and fail to reach her destination of safety. In like manner, there may be all kinds of things that could get us to look back to the old life of sin and disobedience to God that we have abandoned. And if we should allow any of them to make us look back, we may end up being hindered from going forward in our walk of faith in order to experience eternal salvation.
Therefore, we must continually guard our hearts and lives against those thoughts and people that often want to make us look back and desire the old and empty life we already abandoned. Yes, we must protect ourselves against anything or anybody that is constantly making us miss the old life. And remember that, as it was in the case of Lot’s wife, looking back to revel in our past lives of sin could be as bad as currently living in sin. Where this, then, is the case, we may also expect to receive the same punishment for sin that those who are currently living in sin are receiving in their lives. And what this punishment may be is not what I can tell you. But I can tell you to remember Lot’s wife.
Do have a pleasant week.
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