🌿BREATHE TRUTH🌿
When they were safely out of the city, one of the angels ordered, “Run for your lives! And don’t look back or stop anywhere in the valley! Escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away!”…….
But Lot’s wife looked back as she was following behind him, and she turned into a pillar of salt. –Genesis 19:17,26
🌿LIVE THE REAL TRUTH🌿
If we spend time with someone, intimacy develops. Spending time with the past develops an intimacy that binds even when it breaks us. The past is hard to release because it becomes a constant, a comfort, a companion. A friend, a familiarity, like family.
When we forge our heart with the past, it becomes a struggle to let go. We become emotionally attached to it and all that it entails. Except that life never stays the same. Especially the past. This is a mistake Lot’s wife makes. She clings to something that has already changed.
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Swept by the lost.
The city is going up in flames. The buildings and walls are falling down in pieces. Fire is engulfing all that lies within. The city is now a vestige of its former self. All is lost. The past is fading away, but Lot’s wife hesitates. She looks back and gets swept away by it. So do we. We get
~caught up in the emotions of the past
~captured by the lie that what’s behind is better than what’s ahead
~conjure reasons to perpetuate this lie.
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Swept by the L’s.
The lie Lot’s wife listens to crowds out the words of truth the angels give. The angels warn the city is to be destroyed and what to do: Leave. Live. Look.
Leave the past: “Run for your lives!”
Live in the present: “Don’t look back!”
Look to the future: “Escape…or you will be swept away!”
•Leaving the past is hard. We believe we lose something of value. Lot’s wife doesn’t want to lose her past way of life. She tragically clasps to it more than she grasps the angel’s words. Like her, we forget that the past is now but a shadow. When we look back, what we are seeing is only the shadow of what used to be.
•Living in the present is hard. While everyone else has moved on, we remain stuck. The past is constantly in our thoughts and emotions. Our feet moves forward, but our heart does not. Lot’s wife leaves her heart behind in the city of Sodom. All the while she is fleeing, her heart isn’t free. As Lot’s wife discovers, leaving and living hurts, but staying burns.
•Looking ahead is hard. We invest in the past. Our emotions build up equity. Our portfolio reflects all our heart’s hopes. Then the crash comes. The destruction of Sodom is like the fall of the stock market for Lot’s wife. She loses the material, but doesn’t understand that the spiritual is worth so much more.
The angels’ cautionary advice is for the benefit of Lot and his family. But these admonishments can help us as well. Leave the past so we can prevail in the present. Live in the present, truly trusting God is preparing a future we can look forward to. In Christ, God will provide a way out for our good.
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Swept by the lie.
Lot’s wife reflects back because she believes a lie. We turn back to the past because we believe a lie too. We assume something of value still resides there. Our presumptions produce
•The rush: Misperceptions of the past create illusions that the past is a relationship that cares, making us feel wanted when we return.
•The rationalization: Misinterpretations of the past create ideas that the past is rosier than it really is, making us feel good when we return.
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Swept by the pain.
If we continue going back to the past, it will become an idol. Like an addicted drug that keeps pulling us back, tantalizing and taunting, the past will sweep us away in the most painful ways. Find the future and focus your faith where Jesus is. Not where the past was.
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Hold on to God stronger than you do the past,
Hold on to the hope that eternally surpass,
Love that will hold you fast,
Love that far outlasts,
All you’ve been through He will cast,
In His plan the pain won’t last.
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©️2020 Jordan Su