Don’t Miss Your Lot…No Turning Back…

Holy Spirit turned my attention this week to the story of Lot and his wife. I believe that when Holy Spirit turns your head to different scriptures, it’s for a reason and as I prayed and thought more about Lot’s wife, I believe the reason God brought it to my attention is because He wants us to remember what happened to her when she looked back. 

Once we choose to give our lives over to the Lord, He begins to do a work within us. I was a week over the age of 21 when I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, you can read about my salvation experience in the “About me” section of this blog.  Twenty-One years had gone by in my life BEFORE I came to know Jesus.  That means that a foundation of who I had grown to be up until that point had already taken place.  I lived a life of ignorance to the Word of God.  Simply put, I knew NOTHING about the Bible, NOTHING about Jesus, NOTHING about what God had done for me.  To put it simply as in 2 Corinthians 4:4:

“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

My eyes had been blinded, as is the case amongst many that we know in this world in the here and now. Through many life situations, God allowed Holy Spirit to bring me into the knowledge of Who He was and What God had done – sent His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for forgiveness of my sins.  I decided to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and the scales that blinded my spiritual eyes, fell off. Spiritually, I was what they call a “baby” Christian. The Apostle Paul talks about baby Christians in 1 Corinthians 3:2:

“I fed you with milk not with solid food for you were not ready for it.”

If you are a parent, you know that when you have a baby, you start out by feeding him/her with breast milk (or formula) because they are not physically able to eat solid food.  That is how it is when you first become saved.  You are learning ALL about God, ALL about His Word (the Bible) ALL about Jesus and what He did for you.  You start out spiritually being a baby Christian and as you “drink” the Word of God and grow in your walk with Him, you grow spiritually as you grew physically (and as long as you are open to it) and you mature in Christ.

It is a bit more cumbersome for those of us who come to know Jesus when we are older.  There is a lot more within us that needs to be undone or re-learned… Especially when you come to know Jesus when you are an adult.  We have developed thought patterns that Holy Spirit may need to correct so that we can walk in the way that God originally meant us to walk in.  Thought patterns and habits are hard to change (as I’m sure you reading this can attest) and we experience what I call, “spiritual growing pains” that are similar to the physical growing pains we experienced growing as children (women – remember “training bras?”).  The Bible talks about this in Romans 12:2:

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

Renewing of our mind is not something that is a “one and done” deal.  If you desire a closer, deeper walk with God, if you desire to BE in the center of His will, renewing of your mind is something that will occur ALL the days of your life in Him.  Spiritual lessons that Holy Spirit allows you to go through in order to mature you (and me) in Christ.  And the older you are when you come to know Him, the harder those habits and ways that were already established within you are hard to change.  Thank God HE is greater and He has given us Holy Spirit as our Guide and Teacher!  I will be honest and say that some times the renewing is painful in the re-learning of things God wants to show us, but other times it is exhilarating!  God moments of clarity in life are really WOW moments!  There are times when I see something I hadn’t seen so clearly and I’m like – “Wow! How did I NOT see that?!”  Trust me when I say, if you are willing to go deeper with God, you will have those WOW moments too! 😉

Back to Lot’s wife… I believe that God has put the story of Lot’s wife in the Bible for reason.  Let me share Genesis 19:1-28 with you for those of you who don’t know her story.  Please remember to double check whatever anyone writes with your OWN Bible (and if you don’t have one, personal message me your address and I will send you one) because you always want to double check what someone is writing to make sure it lines up with the Word of God.

“The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. “My lords,” he said, “please turn aside to your servant’s house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning.”

“No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.”

But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate. Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”

Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him and said, “No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing. Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”

 “Get out of our way,” they replied. “This fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play the judge! We’ll treat you worse than them.” They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door.

But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door.

The two men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here—sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the Lord against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it.”

So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters. He said, “Hurry and get out of this place, because the Lord is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.

With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.”

When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them. As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!”

But Lot said to them, “No, my lords, please! Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it—it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.”

He said to him, “Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.” (That is why the town was called Zoar.)

By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the Lord. He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.

Lot’s wife turned back.  Lot’s wife, instead of being thankful that God had sent two angels to deliver her and her family from disaster and destruction – she turned back wistful.  She turned her eyes AWAY from God and looked back at what her life had been like and what God was taking them away from.  There are various examples within the Bible of people God has delivered who instead of being thankful and trusting God to direct them WHERE He wants to talk them, look back longingly at what they have left behind…

I imagine that must be like a slap to God’s face… When you read the above, you see that the angels even TOOK THEIR HANDS to lead them out of the city that they were about to destroy.  I call that GOD’S GRACE.  What a loving, faithful, forgiving, tolerant God who wants to TAKE YOUR HANDS and lead you away from what He knows will harm you!  He wants to LEAD you out of harms way! Are YOU looking back???  Becoming a Christian and living for Jesus is a decision you make, it is taking God’s hand and trusting Him to lead you, even when you are uncertain as to where you are going… You CAN be certain of WHO it is who is directing you, that’s called faith!  The Bible tells us in Matthew 6:33:

“Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all else shall follow.”

Don’t you know the things that concern YOU concern God?  Look at the compassion God had on Lot’s family!  Look at the grace!  Look at the concern!  Look at the love!  God feels the SAME way about YOU.  Don’t turn back to old ways when God is calling you forward!  Don’t look back – keep your eyes focused on HIM.  TRUST that those that YOU are concerned about God cares about MORE.  This is where intercessory prayer comes in!  PRAY for those that you are concerned about.  Hey – maybe God has saved YOU for a time such as this?  Intercessory prayer is key!  Maybe God removed the scales from YOUR eyes because He knew in doing so that you would become a strong prayer warrior and He would use YOU as His vessel to bring others into the knowledge and love of Him as He allowed YOUR eyes to see?  TRUST HIM!  Don’t look longingly behind what He has had you leave – look with excitement and joy to where He is leading you!  God has your BEST interest at heart! Don’t listen to the taunts of ol’slewfoot and his dominions who are angry that your eyes have been opened to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Don’t look back at what God has delivered you from – but keep your eyes focused on God and ALLOW Him to lead you to ALL that He has in store for you, because you can trust that He knows what is best.

Don’t put your trust and faith in what you have known, put your trust and faith in the One who KNOWS you. Look ahead.  Look to Jesus. “He IS the Way, the Truth and the Life.” (John 14:6)