Looking Back

     As 2013 ends, the news, the magazines, and all of society seem to look back over the past year and reminisce about events that have occurred. As I read the local newspaper's year-in-review, the memories were not of pleasant stories, but of murders, fires, and other devastating occurrences. 
     I do the same when I look back on my past, the memories that usually surface are the regrets, the sins, and the mistakes. Recently, God reminded me that if I keep one foot in the past and one in the present, my walk with Him into the future will be crooked, if not impossible to achieve.
     On Facebook today, a friend posted the following anonymous quote, "Don't look back, you're not going that way." Two scriptures speak to this issue of looking back at our past lives:

• Philippians 3:13-14, But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
• Isaiah 43: 18-19, Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!

    If I continue to focus on the past, and not look forward to my new future in Christ Jesus, I will end up like Lot's wife when she did not obey the angel's command to "not look back" while fleeing Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:17). Genesis 19:26 notes, "But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt." She couldn't resist looking back on her old "stomping grounds" full of sin and depravity. She wanted one last peek at her former sin and she became frozen in place for eternity. 
     How often am I "frozen in place," unable to move forward at the Lord's request due to past habits, memories, and sins that I can't seem to let go of? By dwelling on my past, I open up a conversation with Satan in which he attempts to dissuade me, and call me back to my old familiar ways. Then, I too become a "pillar of salt," unable to walk in the path of righteousness in which God would want me to go.     

Walking on a salt platform, nearly a foot thick, formed by the Dead Sea in Israel.