Walking With Christ

There are several places in the bible where we, thorough the character in the story, are told to not look back. Lot’s wife turned into a pillar of salt.

Luke 9:62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”(ESV)

This verse has a lot of depth to it. The context added by verse 61 (Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.”) and similar verses before that all tell the same story. This is the cost of following Christ. There is purpose in the cost, though.

This man wanted to say goodbye to his past. Following Jesus means looking forward. To what? To the coming kingdom. To the day of salvation. To the great reward that we will all share.

More directly, the message to this person was that one cannot work for the future while looking at the past. Anyone who tries is going to mess us it up.

Letting go of the past is the only way to see a brighter future. Learning to forgive each other and ourselves is the only way to actually use the lessons learned through our trials.

I, for one, am looking forward to seeing what the Lord has in store for each of us this week.