Don't be paralysed by sin, guilt etc.

This morning I was praying and the Lord brought the account of Lot's wife to mind. I thought I'd share my thoughts with you to encourage you. 

Why was Lot's wife brought to my mind? You may ask. Lot and his family were told not to look back at Sodom and Gomorrah as they were destroyed by God's judgement on an evil region. I have found myself looking back a lot lately for various reasons and it has been hindering my walk with the Lord.

As Christians we have been saved from the power of sin:

Romans 6
6...knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should not longer be slaves of sin.

14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. 

2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 

As Romans 6:14 says, sin shall not have dominion over you...

Romans 5:6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly

Every sin was nailed to Christ on the cross (that's why the sky turned dark and God turned His face away) - we should no longer look back at our past faults and failings because they paralyse us and drag us down and Jesus has paid for them at Calvary, by digging them up again it's as if we're saying they're not fully paid for (we need to repent of those sins). Lot's wife faced the consequences of looking back and although we're not going to become pillars of salt, we can become dry (salt attracts water and has a drying effect) and ineffective. 

Rose coloured spectacles give a false perspective of life

I expect we've all done it - we've all looked back at our childhood and with a big sigh, have said something like "Things were much better in those days..." but we have been called to live for Christ NOW! By looking back and thinking things were better, we forget that they probably weren't or even if they were, we have to keep looking forward. 

Philippians 1:21a For to me, to live is Christ...

We have been called to live for Christ NOW in whichever circumstance we find ourselves in. When Paul wrote those words while he was in prison. How could he live for Christ while being chained up? Well, we have his epistles and I have wondered in the past if he prayed for the church in his present and the church in the future. 

I love period dramas - the etiquette, the clothing etc and I have often thought how grand it would be to live in a society which was so polite and the majority of people probably went to church and even if they weren't true Christians, they would have had Christian moral standards, but in reality, I probably would have been a peasant, living in an alms house and relying on charity from the Lord of the Manor, I may have died in childbirth, caught some disease which can be cured now, but couldn't back then so maybe it's a good thing I was born in the 20th Century, called to live for Jesus NOW in a predominantly secular society. 

Lot's wife looked back - I don't know what was in her heart, but maybe she was looking at the city through rose coloured spectacles. 

Guilt can paralyse

For ages I've felt guilty about the things I've done in the past and the things I should have done but didn't. Those intrusive thoughts have dragged me right down into the horrible pit and the miry clay (Psalm 40), but as Jesus hung on that cross He bore my guilt.  

Romans 3:25,26 ...whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

As Christians we should be moving forward, not looking back

Every born again believer in Christ has a glorious future therefore we should be looking towards the Celestial City (as John Bunyon called heaven in his book The Pilgrim's Progress). Looking behind, whether in fondness, guilt, shame etc makes us stagnant, ineffective. 

A side note - we are in a spiritual battle and we do have to stand firm, but that's not the same as being stagnant. We are soldiers in spiritual warfare, not sleepy saints and we should be advancing forward in the battle. 

The thoughts I had today encouraged me because I have been too busy looking back instead of marching forward. As the couple of hymns say:

Onward Christian soldiers...

We're Marching to Zion...

Let's not look behind us at our guilt, sin and shame because Jesus has taken those from us - repent of those and move forward!