What's the Goal of Looking Back

What do we gain when we look back? First, we have to look at the reason. There is a time to look back over our life, and there is a time we are only to look ahead. Looking back over good times, good memories are great. Even looking back at the bad times are okay, as long as it is the mercy and the blessings of God that we are focused upon.

We all know the story of Lot's wife. The Lord was raining brimstone from heaven on Sodom and Gomarrah. He was raining His judgement upon that evil city. God told Lot to 'Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters....lest thou be consumed..." Lot didn't do this directly, did he? Chapter 19, vs 16 says he lingered, but the Lord was merciful and he was able to escape. Look back at the times God has extended his mercy to you, when you may not have made the right choice, but because of HIS love, he helped you anyway! I don't know about you, but that runs a shiver down my spine! But the command was to leave and not look back. Of course, we know what happened, she looked back and became a pillar of salt. We've got to follow the will of the Lord; we've got to realize the goal of our looking back.

In Joshua, the men of Ai looked behind them, and saw their city up in smoke, they had 'no power to flee this way or that way" and Joshua and all of Israel slew them. Don't forget just before these men died, Achan looked back on some silver, a garment and a wedge of gold, and hid them in his tent. He was the cause of 36 of his own men losing their lives, and paid for it with his and his family's lives! We've got to be careful of our goal of looking back!

We can press forward with hope as long as looking back, keeps us on the pathway that God wants us to be on. Israel didn't seek the counsel of God and ended up having to stay true to the treaty they made with Gibeon and the other cities, in which God had instructed them to destroy. Joshua looked back on that, and reminded Israel to always seek God's counsel before making a treaty. Have you ever done that? Are you paying a bill every month on a car that you thought you just had to have....now every time you send in that money and that sick feeling hits you, God reminds you that you forgot to seek Him first? We've all been there, haven't we. No matter how big a decision, or how small, take it to Him, He will direct your paths! Don't look back and see the mistake, look back and thank God, that even though you made the mistake, He never left you once, and is still with you and with open arms!

As in Phil. 3:14, let's keep pressing 'toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus!' The mark is found in verse 10...that we may KNOW him, and his power and his fellowship! The prize is the joy of the personal satisfaction of reaching that mark! Our goal in looking back should always be to magnify Him, to get us closer to our mark. If looking behind, looking at your past does not help you reach that mark, be careful, you may just turn into that pillar of salt, you may just look back and see your 'city'... your life... going up in smoke. That's the devil's goal for God's child. He can no longer reach your soul, so he will fight to defeat your walk on this side of eternity. Stay focused on God, from your past, and in your future, that's where your victory lies!!