The scripture verse(s) we talk about today include: Genesis 19: 15-17 & 26
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Sarah Elizabeth
Our Faith Your Day Declaration!
Jesus, thank you so much for loving me in the way that you do! You designed me on purpose for a purpose. I want to live to my full potential today, with a mindset that honors you and a soul that seeks to know you better. Jesus I know that you are the way, the truth and the life, and I ask you to guide me and reveal to me what it is that you want to show me here, have me experience here, and learn from this season. Help mold me and shape me into the best version of me. I will live today as your vessel ready to receive your word, respond to your promptings, and pour out your overflowing love to those all around me. Please allow your thoughts to become my thoughts, your ways to become my ways and your will to become what I truly desire. Jesus if you are in it I want it and if you are not I don’t! I choose to faith this day of life! I am so grateful to be your girl! In Jesus name Amen!
Ever have those moments where you reminisce about how life used to be, about how times gone by seemed so different, so much easier, so much more enjoyable and maybe even so much more fun. Are you afraid that your best days may already be behind you? That your most exciting seasons have already been lived. Are the kids growing up too quickly, or maybe they are already out on your own, and you would give anything to have those sweet little baby days back. Have you and your spouse drifted and you’d love to go back to those honeymoon days. Are you on the backside of your career and feeling like you’d love to experience the excitement of being a new employee and learning the ropes all over again…back before things felt mundane, back before everything felt ordinary, and back before you somehow got to right here…right now. Maybe for you it’s a different type of longing. The longing for the familiar and the longing for what was comfortable. The times you’d go back to because you’d know what to expect and what to do…the blessing of hindsight can often in and of itself become a burden.
My sister Jesus has a message for you today and it’s that he doesn’t want you longingly looking back…he wants you to know and believe that your best days are right out in front of you! He wants you to understand that if you are following him, you have absolutely nothing to worry about, and that if you are on the path that he has made then you don’t want to be looking back, because you are going to miss the glory that is ahead!
In the book of Genesis chapter 19, we learn about the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. The people of Sodom and Gomorrah were living so sinfully, that God decided to destroy both cities and the people living within them with fire. Lot who was the nephew of Abraham was living in Sodom with his wife and two daughters. Two angels appeared to Lot and and warned him to get his family out of the city because they were about to destroy it completely. Genesis 19:15-17-(NLT) At dawn the next morning the angels became insistent. “Hurry,” they said to Lot. “Take your wife and your two daughters who are here. Get out right now, or you will be swept away in the destruction of the city!” When Lot still hesitated, the angels seized his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters and rushed them to safety outside the city, for the Lord was merciful. 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!”
Only a few short verses later in Genesis 19:26- we read But Lot’s wife looked back as she was following behind him, and she turned into a pillar of salt.
I can’t help but wonder if there are multiple layers of things we can learn from this…and considering it is God’s word the easy answer there is “Of Course”. At first look we might think it was super unfair that this was the fate of Lot’s wife. That God would do such a thing to someone who made a seemingly simple error in judgement. I think though if we look deeper we can see that her fate can help us learn a couple key lessons. That her error can help us avoid similar errors in judgement that ultimately can lead to a metaphorically similar outcome for us. First I can’t help but wonder why salt…why a pillar of salt…why not stone as an option. My best thinking is that God is trying to show us the danger of trying to “preserve” our past by longingly looking back upon it. You see salt is used as a preservation agent. If you’ve ever had pickles, or beef jerky or anchovies…you know that salt is an important part of this preservation process. The salt helps to prevent bacteria that would otherwise spoil the food from growing. Salt is necessary to allow the food to last for months, years, and even decades at a time. And my sister I think that us seeing a women turned into a pillar of salt when she tried to look back from where she left is a fantastic reminder of how when we try to preserve what we had, go back to what we are familiar with, or longingly wish we could relive that season…then we also preserve our progress, preserve our potential and preserve our future…and not in the good kind of preserve way…we preserve it in the preventing growth kind of way the way similar to how salt prevents the growth of living organisms…our looking back prevents the growth of us living the days ahead that God has already laid out for you.
Secondly, I think it’s really key that we remember that not only did she turn to salt, but that she was essentially frozen in time…stuck in that place and forever unable to walk into the fullness God had for her. Lot’s wife died right there, looking back upon a city that she was familiar with, and ironically a city so full of sin that it was being destroyed because of it. I’m sure there are times that if you were to go back to, they would also have you stuck. Stuck in a place that is not your best, stuck in a rut that you know you need to move out of, stuck in habits and choices that are not what Jesus would choose for you. And I think that Lot’s wife being eternally dead in place shows us what looking back longingly on our past can do to us to. When you look back in remorse, or you look back and feel desire for what once was, you are allowing yourself to be stuck there. Trapped in a time that has passed and trapped in a place that you are meant to travel through.
You see I don’t think God is suggesting here that it’s wrong of us to remember, to recount, to savour what was…I think through the blessing of our memories, our photos and our past we can honestly take pleasure and feel great gratitude looking back on where we have come from and those who have walked with us along the way. God doesn’t want you to forget…but he wants you to continue moving forward while you reminisce. You might have people in your life who you love dearly who are no longer with you, no longer alive or no longer able to be part of your life in the same way they once were…and God does not want you to forget them, but he wants you to understand that they were only ever meant to be there in that way for a season. Life is full of changing seasons…that’s part of the journey. Seasons of babies, seasons of kids, seasons of teenagers, seasons of newly weds, seasons of growing old together, seasons of grandchildren, seasons of growth, seasons of change, seasons of loss, seasons changing…all the while knowing that Jesus is walking through all of them with us.
Interestingly we don’t ever hear about Lot’s wife again in the old testament…in fact, we only ever hear about her one time again in all of scripture, and it’s in the new testament in the book of Luke chapter 17:32 when Jesus himself mentions her. Jesus says 3 words…”Remember Lot’s wife”. If you are looking for some bible trivia today…this is the second shortest verse in scripture. Remember Lot’s wife. The other very interesting thing about this verse is that out of the approximate 170 women ever mentioned in the bible…this is the ONLY time Jesus tells us to remember one of them! He doesn’t tell us to remember Eve, or Sarah or Rebecca, or Ruth or even his own mother Mary…but he tells us to Remember Lot’s wife…why? Why her? A women who we don’t even know her name…she’s only ever known as Lot’s wife. Why would Jesus himself warn you and I to remember her? My friend, he wants you to remember her because she looked back…she looked back upon times gone by with a heart full of longing. She looked back upon what once was wishing she could be there again. She looked back upon a place that she was familiar with and didn’t want to look forward to what was unfamiliar. She looked back on the memories and not forward into her future. She tried to hang on to a season that was already past. And my sweet sweet sister Jesus is warning you to not get stuck doing the same! He doesn’t want you to try so desperately to preserve what once was that you delay your progress. He doesn’t want you to yearn for times gone by when he has so much ahead to show you. He knows that if you look back…trying desperately to hang on to what once was…trying to grip onto what has passed and trying to hold onto a time that is now gone, that you, like Lot’s wife…will get stuck there…preserved in the past.
Jesus didn’t say forget the good times, forget what once was…No…he said to Remember Lot’s wife…remember what happened to her…remember how she remembered. She looked back with a heart that wanted to go back…and that desire, that longing for something that wasn’t possible got her stuck…ended her journey. Savouring the wonderful memories of the past while you continue to move forward….cherishing the times gone by while you step into times ahead. Being so dang grateful for the blessings that were, as you walk into the blessings to come. So girl don’t look back in the wrong way…look back in the way Jesus wants you to. Not with longing, but with gratitude! Remember Lot’s wife