Do you ever look back at the "good old days" and want to go back there?
Do you ever look back at places you've gone, things you did or things you didn't do and wish you could go back and do better?
Do you ever think maybe you missed something and need to go back and take another look?
Do you ever hear God calling you into unknown territory, but you are not sure whether you are ready. Maybe you are not sure you can totally trust Him with an unknown future?
I struggle with all of these. I want to enjoy all the blessings of this day, but I find I have one foot planted firmly in the past and one foot trembling over the unknown future.
There are some notable examples of people in The Bible who looked back instead of moving forward.
Lot's wife is a prime example. We don't even know her name. She was just referred to as "Lot's wife."
God rescued her from total destruction. She was on a good path to safety with angels as her escort. God only required a couple of things from her.
Keep going and don't look back.
She stopped. She looked back. She became a pillar of salt, forever immobilized.
The children of Israel were also delivered from a life of harsh slavery. God personally guided them night and day through the wilderness. He fed them.
But it was not enough for them. At one point they grumbled against God and doubted His Provision for their future. They wanted to turn around and go back to slavery.
Jesus once callled a man to follow Him. The man said he would go with Jesus, but he had a few things to do first. One of them seemed like a reasonable request — just some funeral leave to go bury his father.
Jesus told him no. He did not want him to go back and focus on the dead. He wanted him to move forward and bring spiritually dead people to life.
Jesus said, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim The Kingdom of God."
Luke 9:60
Jesus added, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in The Kingdom of God."
Luke 9:62
I want to be fit for service in The Kingdom of God. So I will not give up.
I take comfort from Paul, who admitted he did not have it all together yet. But he was not giving up. He heard The Call of God, and he was moving forward.
"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus!
Philippians 3:12-14
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