View Site Map

Don't Look Back from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo.

Today I want to talk about putting your hand to the plow, and looking back at what you have left behind. In Genesis chapter 19, there were two cities that had become extremely wicked, so bad that God decided the Earth would be better off without them: Sodom and Gomorrah. During this time, there was a man named Abraham who walked so closely to the Lord that they had conversations. Abraham had a nephew named Lot, who happened to live in Sodom.

Because of Abraham, the Lord sent two angels to Sodom to bring out his nephew and his family. That night, the men of the city surrounded Lot’s house and tried to break down the door so they could have “relations” with the visitors. That was a mistake. The men were struck blind. The angels seized Lot, took him by the hand and led him, his wife, and his two daughters out of Sodom. When they had brought them outside the city, the angels told them: “Escape for your life! Don’t look behind you.”

Think on that a minute. Lot and his family were in a spiritually dark, wicked place, and the Lord came to deliver them. He brought them out and set them free, but there was a condition given: “Don’t look behind you.” 

(Genesis 19:23–26 NKJV) The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zoar. Then the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the LORD out of the heavens. So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

Lot’s wife apparently lagged farther and farther behind the rest of the family. The others had already entered the safety of the town of Zoar, but for some reason she was still out in the open plain. She was having a hard time leaving Sodom. Something in her wanted to go back, perhaps to get something or someone. She was struggling. Perhaps she decided that she would be better off dead than without her possessions.

She was almost saved…she was almost delivered…then she looked back in longing, and that was her end. Scripture tells us that she became a pillar of salt. The Jewish historian Josephus wrote that he actually saw it, for it stood there as a warning for generations. She was almost saved…almost delivered…but she kept looking back.

When we struggle with addictions or things that we are trying to get free of and the Lord begins to bring us out of it, there is the temptation to look back in longing, remember when, remember the pleasures of the past. It is a treacherous slope, for where the mind goes, the body will soon follow. What you feed in your mind will grow, and what you starve will die. If you want to stay free, don’t look behind you.

Jesus said that no one who puts their hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God (Luke 9:62). I grew up on a farm and can tell you from experience that you cannot plow a straight line while looking back. You have to aim for a point in the distance, like a tree, and then make a straight line towards it. If you look over your left shoulder, you will veer to the left, and your row will be as crooked as a snake. You cannot walk the straight and narrow path of life while looking, meditating, and thinking about past pleasure. The writer of Hebrews put it this way:

(Hebrews 12:1–2 NKJV)  …let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…

Lay aside the sin that so easily ensnares us, the weights that slow us down. Keep your eyes on Jesus, the fixed point in the distance, and run the race that is in front of us. There is no time for looking back.

If the enemy cannot get you to long for the past, then he will try the opposite approach and try to make you feel ruined by your past. It’s another lie, and it is just as bad. Again, you cannot plow a straight row when you are looking behind you. You can’t look down on yourself, or back at your past mistakes. We learn from the past, but we live for the future.

God needs you to let the past go, so that you can believe Him in the here and now. When Adam and Eve broke His commandment in the garden of Eden, the first thing they wanted to do was run and hide. It is still the same today. There is always that tendency to want to hide from His presence. It’s the things living inside of us that want to flee from His presence, and if you stick it out and stay close to Him, they will eventually leave.

The Lord loves you and when He forgives you, you are forgiven. When your sin is covered by the blood of Jesus Christ, He will never mention it again. Your sin is gone, removed from you. Though your sins are like scarlet, He will wash you as white as snow. Don’t look back.

You can pray this with me if you like:

Prayer: Heavenly Father, please cleanse and refine me from the inside out. Bring me out of captivity Lord and help me focus on the right things, instead of the wrong. Give me the grace to be steadfast. Make my path clear and help me get in tune with what You are doing today on the Earth, in the name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.