Over the weekend I watched a message where the gentleman speaking was talking about "burning bridges."
For years, we've been told NOT to burn bridges; but what if you were never made to look back?
What if that relationship, job or temporary failure was never supposed to receive an invite into your present?
What if God wanted you to keep moving forward without looking back, but you believed letter go was harder than releasing the past?
Ever think about Lot's wife? Looking back cost her everything.
Abraham was told to leave his former country (Genesis 12). He starts preparing and tells his nephew, Lot to get ready to leave with his family too. Why? Because God revealed destruction was coming.
So, he needed to get out of there.
He didn't have all of the answers. I'm sure Abraham probably wanted to bring more things with him, but he chose to obey and gets his wife, Sarai and others ready.
But there was something he had to pay attention if he wanted to receive the blessings that were ahead.
The instruction was, "Don't look back!"
Can I be honest? Sometimes we don't follow the instruction.
On a personal note, there were times I innocently reconnected with old friends from the past from High School and even from various ministries I frequented.
Let's just say, "I now understand why the command was to keep moving forward."
A lesson is a lesson, no matter how we learn from it. The most important thing is we learn.
But back to Lot's wife.
She didn't listen, looked back and turned into a pillar of salt. She was literally stuck in the past.
I wonder what caused her to look back.
Was there a familiar voice she heard in the distance calling out to her?
Was it fear?
Or, maybe it was a loud boom that grabbed her attention and made her look back in a direction she was never going to return to anyway? This one act, caused her everything.
Ever looked back and thought, "Maybe I shouldn't have done that?"
- Perhaps, it was the phone call you took?
- Or, the unexpected invite that seemed harmless, but wasn't.
- Maybe, it was contemplating returning to the location you promised you'd NEVER go back to. But, when things became uncertain in your life, you looked back.
Walking by faith means we must trust God when we don't know what He is doing.
I can tell you, He knows exactly what He is doing.
Sometimes walking by faith, doesn't make sense. Keep walking anyway.
What if we learned from from Lot's wife and decided the cost of looking back was too costly?
Because it can be. Especially, when God Himself says, "Don't look back."
Raise your hand if you learned this the hard way.
I did too.
I mean, it made sense "they're my friends." But some people are only in your life for a season.
My advice, "Don't overstep the boundary of goodbye."
You'll save yourself unnecessary hardship and even heartache by setting boundaries and looking forward with expectancy. If you do your latter can be so much better than the pain of the past.
BUT, you must choose to move forward, while believing God knows better than you. He does.
He sees, hears and knows what you and I don't. So, just know if He is giving you the green light to go forward, keep on going and don't look back.
I think today is a good day to decide to focus forward.
Social media is a great tool, but if not careful we can open the door to unnecessary hardship by re-connecting with those who need to stay in the past.
Just imagine if the children of Israel had social media -
- God tells Moses to go to Pharaoh and tell him to "Let my people go."
- Although Pharaoh doesn't listen at first he finally lets them go.
- They go through the wilderness and reach the brink of the Red Sea.
- God opens up the Red Sea for them. They walk across on dry ground and they begin to celebrate because God delivered them from all of the horrible things they experienced in the past.
And then . . .
They go to Instagram and Facebook and say, "Hey wait a minute, let's re-connect with the very people God delivered us from. "They can't be that bad. Right?"
I am literally shaking my head.
Wait, but didn't they hate you without a cause. Didn't they get others to despise you.
Didn't you get out of that situation by the grace of God. Didn't you feel weighted down by the unnecessary attacks they inflicted on you.
Why would you want to go back to that?
But, this is what so many people do.
I get it, sometimes you're kind and forgiving, but that doesn't always mean to rekindle and go back to what God has delivered you from.
"As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly" - Proverbs 26:11
Now I'm not saying we are fools, but I am saying repeating the same mistakes over and over again doesn't have to be your experience. At least not anymore.
Stay the course. Look ahead. Remember Lot's wife.
Your future, destiny and even peace depend on you releasing the past and looking forward to a better day.
Today, I invite you to look at the areas in your life where you have found yourself looking back.
It may not be a literal person, but perhaps it's the mistake you made that keeps trying to tell you, you don't deserve better. You do.
Perhaps, it's the negative words someone spoke that made you feel, you couldn't break free from the gaslighting and narcissism. You can.
Maybe, it's your own words that cause you to keep speaking shame and self-depreciating words about yourself. Don't do this. Anyone who is made by God is a gift. Speak life over your own life. Remember, your words have power.
Maybe it's the phone numbers or belongings that keep reminding you of what was.
Those reminders are costing you your peace. Let them go. Nothing is more valuable that you breaking free from the very things that tried to hold you back.
You're not going that way anymore. It's hard driving forward to a new destination in reverse.
Change gears and shift forward. Choose you. Choose new.
You deserve it. You owe it to yourself, your family and your future to break free from the past and leap forward.
How about doing something you never thought you would? How about breaking free from the noise of the past.
Me?
I'll be closing down the Facebook page. It served a purpose, but as I approach my birthday weekend, I am giving myself the gift of goodbye and so long in areas that needed to be closed down years ago.
Remember, what doesn't serve you, doesn't need to be in your now. Now, if God has a purpose for it, that's different, but let it be Him. Because one thing I know for sure if He loves His children and when we know this too we show up differently. Even for ourselves.
If it's causing more pain than peace, give yourself permission to re-evaluate, re-set and then unapologetically embrace your new day while leaping forward.
And then . . .
Don't look back.
Can't wait to close that page down. How about you? What will you release from the past?
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