Don’t Look Back

Luke 9:62  Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."

Sometimes in this life, we must go through trials. Sometimes those trials seem unfair.  Trials come in many forms; the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, financial problems, betrayal, arguments and strife.  The Lord never promised us that everything would be easy.  Actually James tells us “consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.” 

Your loved ones will not be brought back to life, you may not get your job back, you will always have to deal with betrayal, arguments and strife, but one thing we are assured of: He will go with us through it all.  These things will hurt, but will not kill us. We will come through because of His grace. Actually, even though your physical body will not be killed, you will die to some things that you need to die to. If you examine your life, you may find that there was something that was keeping you from serving God fully.  Every trial deepens our faith and develops a deeper understanding of our Lord and how He operates. 

I was reading an article by Chip Brogden about this subject, and he had some wonderful insight.  “In the wilderness you don’t follow your feelings. It says the children of Israel were led by a column of smoke by day and a pillar of fire by night. When the cloud moved then they moved. When the cloud stayed still then they stayed still. I mean it’s really as simple as that; walk in the Spirit. If you begin to be led by your feelings then you’ll make the wrong decision every time. Most of the time, the right decision doesn’t feel good. Doing the right thing is usually difficult. The easiest thing to do is to quit, to give up, to go back to Egypt. But I’m telling you, get to a place where going back is no longer an option – then going back is no longer a temptation.

When the Spanish explorer Cortez landed in South America he was looking for a way to make sure his men would not be tempted to quit and go back to Spain when times got hard. So as soon as they landed on shore and unloaded their supplies, he ordered them to burn their ships. There would be no going back. Either they would overcome or they would die trying.

I just wish we who are Christians, we who claim to know the Lord, would have as much faith in the Lord Jesus as those men had in Cortez. They burned their ships and followed him into the jungle and Cortez didn’t have a clue where he was going or what he would find. How much more can we trust the Lord Jesus to not only lead us out of Egypt, but to lead us through the desert and into the Promised Land?”

Wow, I love that.  If we keep our eyes forward as we “plow” on in service to our Lord, we will not be tempted to go back.  Remember the lessons you have learned from the past and take those with you as you serve the Lord will all of your heart!